Investigating crowdsourced digital activism and the security threats these actions pose

技术进步改变了群体组织和参与集体行动的方式，活动家们经常采用新技术来帮助他们不断变化的需求（Sauter，2013）。虽然新的工具和策略可以为活动家提供更多的机会来推进他们的事业，但它们也可能构成新的安全威胁。活动人士已经利用了各种现有技术，从在谷歌评论上发布照片以逃避审查限制，到发动分布式拒绝服务（DDoS）攻击。随着诸如低轨道离子炮（LOIC）之类的软件的发明以及诸如压力源和启动器之类的容易获得的在线工具的发明，后者已经变得越来越容易部署，即使是那些技术敏锐度较低的人也是如此（布鲁克斯等人，2022; Karami &麦考伊; Sauter，2013）。通常，这些技术增强或启用的行动是通过Telegram或Twitter等平台上的大规模组织实施的，在这些平台上，团体发布公开呼吁采取行动，有效地进行了众包行动。这类威胁不仅会影响到他们所针对的组织和政府，以及他们运营的在线平台，还会影响到活动人士本身。这种众包的数字行动主义一直没有得到技术网络安全研究和心理学集体行动研究的充分研究。为了解决研究中的这些差距，将采用跨学科的方法，结合心理学和技术视角，以更好地了解技术，用户和更广泛的社会背景之间的相互作用。该项目将建立对众包数字行动主义的全面了解，这些行动利用的现有漏洞，以及考虑我们未来可能面临的趋势和安全威胁。这些工作将使人们能够了解、预测并在必要时应对网络安全威胁。

Technological advances have changed how groups organise and engage with collective action, and activists have often adapted new technologies to assist their changing needs (Sauter, 2013). Whilst new tools and tactics can provide activists with greater opportunities to advance their causes, they also potentially pose new security threats. Already, activists have taken advantage of a wide range of existing technologies, from posting photos on Google reviews to evade censorship restrictions, to launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. The latter has been made increasingly easy to deploy, even by those with less technical acumen, with the invention of software such as Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), and easily accessible online tools such as stressors and booters (Brooks et al., 2022; Karami & McCoy; Sauter, 2013). Often these technologically enhanced or enabled actions are enacted via large scale organisation on platforms such as Telegram or Twitter, where groups post open calls to take action, effectively crowdsourcing activism. Such threats impact not only the organisations and governments they target, and the online platforms in which they operate, but also the activists themselves.This type of crowdsourced digital activism has been understudied by both technical cyber-security research and collective action research in psychology. To address these gaps within the research, an interdisciplinary approach will be adopted, combining the psychological and technological perspectives, to better understand the interplay between the technology, users, and the wider societal context. This project will establish a thorough understanding of crowdsourced digital activism, the existing vulnerabilities these actions exploit, as well as considering trends and security threats we may face in future. Such work will enable avenues to understand, predict and, when necessary, counter the cybersecurity threats posed.