ABSTRACT
In recent years, and in current discourse, cyber has been used to refer variously to information technology culture, computers and virtual reality or to futuristic concepts. Making a different adaptive argument, Brown (2006) defends a criminology of hybrids (humans plus techniques) that concerns itself with mapping the techno-social networks, its actants and assemblages. Cyberspace challenges physical spatial limits, making geography irrelevant when facing an experience of equidistance. In the context of criminal manifestations, the individual empowerment provided by the internet generates greater control of criminal activity by acting individuals. This empowerment is due to the ability technology possesses to be a force multiplier, allowing individuals with minimum resources to generate potentially great negative effects. Hacktivism consists of activism and political protest that makes use of hacking techniques and tools. Elements of traditional criminological knowledges are also likely to remain pertinent to cyberspaces, able to be transposed and applied to new realities.
