“Doxing” is the publication of personally identifiable information (PII) of someone to the internet, generally for malicious purposes. The kinds of information disclosed may include the victim’s home addresses, family members’ information, and financial information.
Hacktivist groups dox government officials in response to perceived injustices with the objective of embarrassing the victim, or providing the information so others may target the victim for malicious activity. In some cases, organized cyber criminal groups and criminals may take advantage of information released during doxing incidents but are not known to conduct the activity themselves. For example, see http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/03/anti-doxing-strategy-or-how-to-avoid-50-qurans-and-287-of-chick-fil-a/.
