"Remember, remember, the fifth of November," or so the folk verse goes but in 2015, everybody still has the events of the 13th of November fresh in their minds. Now another plot has taken shape in the form of the hacktivist group Anonymous' plan to strike the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) via its recruitment channels on the Internet.
Anonymous posted the video declaring "War on ISIS" in their YouTube page shortly after the coordinated attacks in Paris. In it, the person wearing the Guy Fawkes mask threatened to hunt down ISIS saying they will not forgive the terrorist group for the atrocities they caused. Of course, ISIS answered the threat and called Anonymous "idiots."
It is believed that Anonymous will use the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) as its cyber-attack strategy to shut down ISIS websites. Within a week of its announcement, Anonymous has reportedly taken down about 5,000 Twitter accounts of ISIS members and sympathizers, including the account of five men it believed to be ISIS recruiters.
Likewise, Ghost Security Group, another anonymous hacker group is taking part in the action to infiltrate and gather information on the activities of ISIS. The group is believed to be comprised of counterintelligence officials and computer specialists who have been successful in preventing at least 10 terror plots.
"We felt enough wasn't being done, so we wanted to put our skills to good use," DigitaShadow, an executive member of Ghost said. "We're completely independent. We survive off donations alone."
Some of Ghost's members were former members of Anonymous. However, the small group of jihadi hunters denies associations with the underground hacktivist group.
"We are in no way affiliated with Anonymous," the group clarified.
There is, however, a disagreement with regard to the strategy of Anonymous that involves taking down accounts. Government intelligence agencies and even Ghost are using identified accounts to track ISIS movements, and with more accounts being taken down by Anonymous, that also means less leads for officials to crack down on ISIS plots.
There is information that the terrorists may be adapting to the cyber attacks of Anonymous by changing their behavior online. In addition, massive DDoS attack happened in Britain beginning Nov. 18 and it is believed that hackers for the terrorist group are behind them in response to Anonymous' threat and actions.
