Acts of hacktivism, or "hacktions," tend to fall into one or more of the following categories:
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks: Attacks which bring down websites or otherwise disrupt Internet activity by systematically sending so many requests to a server that it cannot handle the traffic and is rendered temporarily useless. Common examples include email bombing and web sit-ins.
Website Defacements: Attacks which change the content of websites, usually for the purpose of spreading a political message.
Internet Worms: Programs designed to spread themselves within a network, either for the purpose of disrupting activity or spreading a message.
Click the links to the left to see some historical examples of hacktions.