Following the horrendous attack on Paris in which 129 people were killed and many more injured, Anonymous, the infamous group of hacktivists, has declared all out cyberwar against ISIS. On Monday, Anonymous released a video announcing that the group would “launch the biggest operation ever” against Islamic State.
According to a recent Tweet, Anonymous has already taken down 5500 Twitter accounts purportedly belonging to Islamic State members with more to come; including Facebook and Tumblr accounts as well as ISIS affiliated websites and dark web pages. Anonymous is anticipating that these attacks on ISIS controlled social media accounts and pages will effectively disrupt recruitment as well as fund raising and has already leaked details of at least five men it claims are recruiters for the terror group.
For me, all this rams home the sheer power of social media as well as bringing its potential for a dark side to the fore, something which I admit, perhaps rather naively, I hadn’t previously considered. Frankly, I couldn’t think of anything more anti-social.
Just like the terrorists it’s cyber attacking, Anonymous is not bound to play by the rules so, hopefully, they may have a chance of succeeding where all else is plainly failing.
Can Anonymous make a difference, what do you think?
Take them on guys !
Pick ’em clean and shut them down.
If they can disrupt these barbarians without causing retribution and being harmed themselves, then I applaud their actions.
Really,
What can these guy’s do that the NSA or Israelis can’t.
Maybe I am a dinosaur and can not see the significance of social media but who the hell cares about a twitter account? If removing access to social media shuts down a terrorist organization then it isn’t much of an organization.
when i first saw this post it stopped me in my tracks. talk about good publicity for Anonymous. i think its just great…about time some group of intelligent, savvy people showed the government how to do something that actually works. kudos to them and i hope they can somehow share something that we can do to help them in their fight.
The NSA and most government agencies are bound to legal constraints that slow them down and restrict their progress lest they annoy the privacy loving public and get caught peeking. Anonymous answers only to themselves. Jolly swell of those chaps to put the screws to those barbarians.
ISIS considers itself a “state”. The USA should declare war on ISIL. This is something we have not done since WWII.
We are not in a politically correct game. We are being terrorised, which is an act of war.
Various groups like Anonymous are not unlike people who joined war efforts against the Axis Powers before, the US formally declared war after Dec 7,1941.
We have been frustrated because we have been wounded by non states.
We must annihilate ISIS.
Then perhaps we can return to just plain “life is difficult,”. (M. Scott Peck)
The Road Less Traveled
Time to suspend ALL rules of engagement (ROE). The Colonists refused to fight by George III’s ROEs. ISIS refuses, too, and they have the upper hand. Time to remove the handcuffs and RELEASE THE HOUNDS! *not political commentary, this is about exterminating and eradicating terrorism.
I think the term “ethical” can be applied, to hackers choosing to have a cyberwar with ISIS.