Even people who aren’t normally fans of Anonymous probably won’t object to the hacker collective using its powers to take on Islamic State, the hated group of Islamic fundamentalists that has carried out deadly terror attacks in Paris and Beirut over the past week. This is why we’re pleased to see that Anonymous has declared cyberwar on ISIS and has already gotten hundreds of its purported Twitter accounts banned from the service.
Metro.co.uk reports that Anonymous this week published a list of 900 ISIS-related Twitter accounts that have subsequently been suspended by Twitter. This first strike is important because ISIS has shown itself adept at using social media as a recruitment and propaganda tool. Even though it’s easy for ISIS to create new Twitter accounts, it takes time to build up a following on new accounts and amplify messages. So while banning Twitter accounts might be a cat-and-mouse game, it can still be very disruptive to the organization’s recruiting methods.
And of course, this is just the first strike against ISIS that Anonymous will unleash. In the past they’ve sparred with the North Korean government, the Church of Scientology, the Westboro Baptist Church and others to varying degrees of success. The group is vowing their biggest operation ever against Islamic State so we’ll just have to wait to see what that entails.
While it sounds like a mobile game you’d play to kill time, hackers vs. terrorists is sadly a real war. The hacker collective that goes by the name “Anonymous” recently posted a video on YouTube declaring war on ISIS in response to the attacks on Paris that left 129 dead and hundreds injured on Friday night. Anonymous wants to “launch the biggest operation ever” against the terrorist group, and ISIS is apparently taking notice – though the organization apparently believes Anonymous are “idiots” for even considering digital warfare.
“Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down. We will launch the biggest operation ever against you,” a masked person said in the hackers’ video. “Expect massive cyberattacks. War is declared. Get prepared.” In response, a Telegram channel that is believed to be affiliated with ISIS hackers sent out a warning message in Arabic and English, telling others how to thwart Anonymous hacks.
“The #Anonymous hackers threatened in new video release that they will carry out a major hack operation on the Islamic state (idiots),” the statement said, according to Business Insider.
“What they gonna hack?” ISIS asked, noting that so far, hackers have only managed to hit ISIS-affiliated Twitter accounts and email addresses.
The message on the Telegram channel, an encrypted chat service that may have been used to help plot the Paris attacks, also says that followers should not open any links unless they’re sure of the source, change IP addresses “constantly,” and “not talk to people [you] don’t know on Telegram” or through Twitter direct messages.
This isn’t the first time Anonymous has set its sights on ISIS. Following the January Charlie Hebdo attacks, hackers tried to identify ISIS social media accounts and take down extremist websites.
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