"This may drive them to increase their capabilities when it comes to encrypting communication and securing their sites. The use of cyberspace as a tool to conduct terrorist activity is still in its infancy.
IS ANONYMOUS A TERRORIST GROUP OFFLINE
Anonymous originated in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan representing the concept of many online and offline community users simultaneously. "This may actually force ISIS to be a little more security savvy," said Westin. Anonymous is not a terrorist organization. Anonymous is a decentralized international activist/hacktivist collective and movement widely known for its various cyberattacks against several governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations, and the Church of Scientology. If anything, he fears ISIS takes the risks seriously and gains insight from the hacking strategies.
IS ANONYMOUS A TERRORIST GROUP SOFTWARE
Ken Westin, a security market specialist with software vendor Splunk, doesn't expect much to come of the Anonymous threats. Strategic Logic of Credit Claiming: A New Theory for Anonymous Terrorist Attacks. The Associated Press reported last month that ISIS generates up to $50 million a month through sales of crude from oilfields in Iraq and Syria that it now controls. Explaining terrorism: Leadership deficits and militant group tactics. It's widely believed that ISIS is funded in large part by oil revenue. The Chaos Computer club is Europe’s largest hacking group. In some circles, Anonymous is considered a hacktivist group, while detractors refer to them as a terrorist group. This proportion has been called 'surprisingly high' and is in conflict with the conventional wisdom that terrorists 'mount an. Read More On encryption, Silicon Valley isn't budgingĮfforts to track money flow will likely be a greater challenge. Furthermore, it is posited that if hacker groups could be employed to actually commit acts of cyberterrorism, terrorist groups would improve their ability to. The targets of Anonymous are often groups that they view as corrupt, such as child pornography sites or the Westboro Baptist Church. terrorist attacks (acts using intentional violence to achieve political aims) that no group or person has been publicly claimed responsibility for - constitutes most terrorist attacks (about six out of seven) in the world at least since 1998. "Anything with a digital fingerprint these guys can find." "ISIS should have high respect for their abilities," said Long. Governments that have had sites hacked by Anonymous in recent years include Canada, Australia, Tunisia and Turkey. Anonymous appears to already be hacking ISIS-related websites, documenting the process on Twitter with the hashtags #TangoDown, #OpParis and #OpISIS, though none of the Twitter accounts involved is verified.īeyond going after its recruiting tools, Anonymous can look to expose the terrorist group's finances, communications and logistics as well as intelligence information gathered by various government organizations, said Paula Long, CEO of DataGravity, a developer of secured storage technology.