Protest USA’s Nazi action! Protest NATO’s brutal action! We are Chinese hackers who take no cares about politics. But we can not stand by seeing our Chinese reporters been killed which you might have know [sic]. Whatever the purpose is, NATO led by USA must take absolute responsibility. You have owed Chinese people a bloody debt which you must pay for. We won’t stop attacking until the war stops!

Web defacements were also popular in a cyberwar that erupted between hackers in China and Taiwan in August 1999. Chinese hackers defaced several Taiwanese and government websites with pro-China messages saying Taiwan was and always would be an inseparable part of China. "Only one China exists and only one China is needed," read a message posted on the website of Taiwan’s highest watchdog agency. Taiwanese hackers retaliated and planted a red and blue Taiwanese national flag and an anti-Communist slogan, "Reconquer, Reconquer, Reconquer the Mainland," on a Chinese high-tech Internet site. The cyberwar followed an angry exchange between China and Taiwan in response to Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui’s statement that China must deal with Taiwan on a "state-to-state" basis.

Many of the attacks during the Palestinian-Israeli cyberwar were web defacements. The hacking group GForce Pakistan, which joined the pro-Palestinian forces, posted heart-wrenching images of badly mutilated children on numerous Israeli websites. The Borah Torah site also contained the message, "Jews, Israelis, you have crossed your limits, is that what Torah teaches? To kill small innocent children in that manner? You Jews must die!" along with a warning of additional attacks.

Hacktivists have also hijacked websites by tampering with the Domain Name Service so that the site’s domain name resolves to the IP address of some other site. When users point their browsers to the target site, they are redirected to the alternative site.

In what might have been one of the largest mass website takeovers, the antinuclear Milw0rm hackers joined with the Ashtray Lumberjacks hackers in an attack that affected more than 300 websites in July 1998. According to reports, the hackers broke into the British Internet service provider (ISP) EasySpace, which hosted the sites. They altered the ISP’s database so that users attempting to access the sites were redirected to a Milw0rm site, where they were greeted by a message protesting the nuclear arms race. The message concluded with "Use your power to keep the world in a state of PEACE and put a stop to this nuclear bullshit."

Web Sit-ins

Web sit-ins are another popular form of attack. Thousands of Internet users simultaneously visit a target website and attempt to generate sufficient traffic to disrupt normal service. A group calling itself Strano Network conducted what was probably the first such demonstration as a protest against the French government’s policies on nuclear and social issues. On December 21, 1995, they launched a one-hour Net’Strike attack against the websites operated by various government agencies. At the appointed hour, participants from all over the world pointed their browsers to the government websites. According to reports, at least some of the sites were effectively knocked out for the period.

In 1998, EDT took the concept a step further and automated the attacks. They organized a series of sit-ins, first against Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo’s website and later against US President Bill Clinton’s White House website, the Pentagon, the US Army School of the Americas, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and the Mexican Stock Exchange. The purpose was to demonstrate solidarity with the Mexican Zapatistas. According to EDT’s Brett Stalbaum, the Pentagon was chosen because "we believe that the US military trained the soldiers carrying out the human rights abuses." For a similar reason, the US Army School of the Americas was selected. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange was targeted, Stalbaum said, "Because it represented capitalism’s role in globalization utilizing the techniques of genocide and ethnic cleansing, which is at the root of the Chiapas’ problems. The people of Chiapas should play a key role in determining their own fate, instead of having it pushed on them through their forced relocation (at gunpoint), which is currently financed by Western capital."

To facilitate the strikes, the organizers set up special websites with automated software. All that was required of would-be participants was to visit one of the FloodNet sites. When they did, their browser would download the software (a Java Applet), which would access the target site every few seconds. In addition, the software let protesters leave a personal statement on the targeted server’s error log. For example, if they pointed their browsers to a non-existent file such as "human_rights" on the target server, the server would log the message, "human_rights not found on this server."

When the Pentagon’s server sensed the attack from the FloodNet servers, it launched a counter-offensive against the users’ browsers, redirecting them to a page with an Applet program called "HostileApplet." Once there, the new applet was downloaded to their browsers, where it endlessly tied up their machines trying to reload a document until the machines were rebooted. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange reported that they were aware of the protest but believed it had not affected their services. Overall, EDT considered the attacks a success. "Our interest is to help the people of Chiapas to keep receiving the international recognition that they need to keep them alive," said Stalbaum.

Since the time of the strikes, FloodNet and similar software have been used in numerous sit-ins sponsored by EDT, the Electrohippies, and others. There were reports of FloodNet activity during the Palestinian-Israeli cyberwar. Pro-Israel hackers created a website called Wizel.com, which offered FloodNet software and other tools before it was shut down. Pro-Arab hackers put up similar sites.

The Electrohippies have been criticized for denying their targets’ right to speech when conducting a sit-in. Their response has been that a sit-in is acceptable if it substitutes the deficit of speech by one group with a broad debate on policy issues and if the event used to justify the sit-in provides a focus for the debate. The Electrohippies also demand broad support for their actions. An operation protesting genetically modified foods was aborted when the majority of visitors to their site did not vote for the operation.