Biography of a Hacktivist: Bronc Buster
Second only to the venerated cDc leader and Hacktivismo head OXblood Ruffin is Bronc Buster. In 1998, the young computer science student gained international attention as one of the elite members of Legions of the Underground. For that group, he hacked into the official China Human Rights page on the first day it was put up. http://www.humanrights-china.org/
Instead of letting the hypocrisy stand online, Buster placed the words “Boycott China” prominently on the page. Buster also added links to Amnesty International and the New York-based Human Rights in China. He also replaced the original contents with the following message, which displays his fiery intensity:
“China’s [sic] people have no rights at all, never mind Human Rights. I really can’t believe our government deals with them. They censor, murder, torture, maim and do everything we take for granite [sic] left the earth with the middle ages. The Chinese communist government is made out of a gang of 100+ year old thugs and bullies who hide in seclusion. This pitiful effort of trying to change the hearts and minds of the world is a joke!” (See picture of Buster)
Chinese officials returned the site to its original content 36 hours later, without mentioning the incident. (http://journalism.uts.edu.au/subjects/oj1/oj1_a2002/internetactivisminasia/china_activists_background.html)Since, Buster has hacked many sites for Hacktivismo, an off-shoot of cDc. Bearing the titles of network wrangler and charter member, Buster’s name has been heavily associated with Peek-a-booty, a program designed to thwart opponents of human rights. He’s also known to have, along with a hacker named Zyklon, hacked a firewall system designed to stop users from certain websites. This allowed Chinese access to blocked sites for a brief period of time. Out of 20 firewalls found, the duo tampered with a handful. According to journalism.uts.edu, “they opened up access to BBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, News.com, all the search engines and even the family-oriented sites Parents.com, Family.com and Seniors.com.” They covered their tracks using fake addresses.
Actions, noble or not, have placed Buster in an elite category of hacker.