protestware

From protest +‎ -ware.

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

protestware (uncountable)

1. (computing, neologism) Software subverted to serve the ends of a political protest, for example by deleting files or displaying propaganda messages.
   • 2022 March 17, Brian Krebs, “Pro-Ukraine ‘Protestware’ Pushes Antiwar Ads, Geo-Targeted Malware”, in Krebs on Security‎:

     Commenting on the malicious code added to the “Vue-cli” application, GitHub user “nm17” said a continued expansion of protestware would erode public trust in open-source software.

   • 2022 March 19, Lucian Constantin, “Developer sabotages own npm module prompting open-source supply chain security questions”, in CSO Magazine:

     In January, two other popular modules called colors and faker were intentionally sabotaged by their maintainer. Is protestware going to become a common problem?

   • 2022 March 21, “CNN Follows Marines Fighting to Take Back Kherson from Russia”, in CNN International First Move with Julia Chatterley, spoken by George Kurtz:

     In fact, what we've seen over the last week is something called “protestware”, and that is some damaging and non-damaging code put into open source projects, specifically focused on organizations in Russia and Belarus. Now, they are making a statement, and that falls under what we call “hacktivism”.

   • 2024 January 22, “DevSecOps risks: How can Indian tech mitigate software hijacking”, in Express Computer, Mumbai:

     developers and project maintainers themselves sometimes engage in this activity as a form of protest or advocacy for their beliefs. This form of hijacking, often referred to as protestware is a concerning trend because it can be difficult for an organisation to recognise it before it’s too late.

   • 2024 September 30, Tanner Finken, Jesse Chen, Sazzadur Rahaman, “An Investigation into Protestware”, in ArXiv‎:

     The roots of protestware date back to the early days of computing. However, recent events in the Russo-Ukrainian war has sparked a new wave of protestware.

• malware
• ransomware

protestware m (uncountable)

1. protestware
   • 2022 March 17, Emerson Alecrim, “Protestware: desenvolvedor sabota projeto com "mensagem de paz" para Ucrânia [Protestware: developer sabotages project with 'message of peace' for Ukraine]”, in Terra Brasil‎, archived from the original on 7 April 2022:

     A solução apontada pelos pesquisadores da Snyk para que desenvolvedores possam se desvencilhar desse protestware é priorizar o uso de versões "limpas" do node-ipc, como a 9.2.1 e a 10.1.0.

     The solution pointed out by Snyk researchers for developers to avoid this protestware is to prioritise the use of "clean" versions of node-ipc, such as 9.2.1 and 10.1.0.

   • 2022 March 18, Milena Dimitrova, “Projetos de Protestware no GitHub Push Pro-Ukraine Ads e Data Wipers”, in Sensors Tech Forum‎:

     Pesquisadores têm rastreado os chamados projetos de protestware no GitHub com código adicionado recentemente que exibe mensagens “Stand with Ukraine”.

     Researchers have been tracking protestware projects on GitHub with recently added code to exhibit messages such as “Stand with Ukraine”.

   • 2024 October 1, “O que você precisa saber sobre extorsão cibernética [What you need to know about cyber-extortion]”, in SegInfo‎:

     Protestos ou “Protestware”: é um tipo de extorsão cibernética em que os invasores usam táticas, como roubo de dados ou interrupção de serviço, para pressionar por mudanças políticas ou sociais em vez de ganho puramente financeiro.

     Protests or “protestware”: this is a type of cyber-extortion in which attackers use tactics, such as data theft or service disruption, to press for political or social change rather than purely financial gain.