# Hacktivism

The use of hacking techniques to promote a political or social cause rather than for financial gain.

**Hacktivism[↗](/hacktivism)** is the use of hacking skills and techniques, website defacement, data leaks, denial-of-service attacks, to promote a political, social, or ideological cause rather than for personal financial gain. The term blends "hacking" and "activism."

Hacktivist groups often target organizations they view as acting unethically, publishing leaked internal documents or taking a website offline to draw public attention to a cause. While motivations differ from criminal hacking, the techniques and resulting damage, downtime, data exposure, reputational harm, can be just as significant for the targeted organization.