The latest in a series of high-profile, high volume hacks on major businesses, Citibank came out today revealing that it had recently been hacked and as many as 200,000 customers' personal information a may be compromised. Although they just now have reported it, the breach evidently took place early last month.

    Two relatively new "hacktivist" groups, Anonymous and LulzSec (short for Lulz Security) have waged a war on nearly any entity that end up on the wrong side of them. Sony now states that they believe their network was breached (and virtually broken) by the group Anonymous, which was reported earlier this week (click here). LulzSec, on the other hand, posted a fallacious article on PBS.org about Tupac Shakur being alive, and most recently attempted to infiltrate an FBI affiliate known as InfraGard Atlanta; a non-profit that works on cyber-security.

     Whether it's still unknown whether either of these groups is responsible for the cyber-attack on Citibank, it's clear that hackers have organized to continue an assault on major entities in both government and the private industry. The F.B.I., via England's The Guardian reported that one of its counter-measures has been to create a network of its own, saying that 1 in very 4 hackers is actually an FBI informant. Though the blogosphere remains dubious about this number, it does show that government agencies are taking this seriously. The Obama administration did name cyber-security a #1 priority of his adminitration, afterall. However, anyone saying that they have 1/4th control over a group as nebulous as hackers is a bit like saying they have every 5th terrorist under surveillance.

     Whatever the case, we can expect hackers and their government/corporate targets to continue to battle it out over cyberspace. The implications of this Wild West showdown, however, could mean serious real-world consequences for citizens and consumers. It seems to me that at least some of the increase in hacker activity and identity has been a result of the WikiLeaks blow-up over secret government emails and documents that were released. There definitely exists a schism in popular culture between more transparency, particularly online, and less. Earlier generations seem to be in favor of more transparency, more availability, and less retricted access online. (Kind of the anti-privacy generation) However, old generations navigating the cyber byways are fond of their privacy, allowing others their secrets and wanting greater security.

     The new "hacktivism" seems to be social outgrowth of this desire for more access and less privacy. Even as governments and corporations attempt to control the massive ebb and flow of information, these groups are making very public (and often costly) statements about the social cyberspace in which they want to live. Just as counter-culture is an outgrowth of disatisfactions with established social norms, hackers have grown from a simple criminal endeavor into a sory of cyber-counter-culture, and their hacks are the direct action of our wireless world. Perhaps the greatest irony is that working toward transparency they are covert and "anonymous".