HAcK3rZ and Information Warfare

This piece of work attempts to suggest an outlook on hacking-related phenomena which are usually enquired acc ording to many different disciplinary perspectives, and it especially focuses on their social aspects. Hackers are here considered as system-intruders, an activity which doesn't imply computer systems only as the boundaries of hacking are overlapping those of the cultural and aesthetic fields. As a consequence of this, social institutions we believe in could loose their legitimacy when their errors are shown. The deeper the error is rooted into the mechanism, the more it spreads mistrust. What is socially relevant is the use we make of networks and the confidence we accord to them. «Hacking is an attitude» constitutes a way to approach information and communication technology (ICT) in accordance to the «hands on» and «information wants to be free» mottos which contrast any confidence in economically or politically managed development. Anyone who respects the hacker ethics is bound to explore the «natural rule» of an electronically simulated place. The «daydream nation», the «matrix» evoked by W. Gibson proves to be an environment where not only signs but also acts are meaningful. The democratization of technology is defining new economical and military settings, new forms of sociality and knowledge, but it enables anomy either.