A few days following the Paris terrorist attacks, ISIS has already ended up being the primary target of the Anonymous group. In fact, the group has declared total war against the terrorist group, saying its members from across the globe will hunt them down.
Experts, however, are apprehensive because they are convinced that the move of Anonymous could become more detrimental than beneficial.
A spokesperson of Anonymous wearing a Guy Fawkes mask said in a YouTube clip that the group is going to kick off its most significant operation ever against ISIS.
Jonathan Sander, currently the vice president of product strategy at Lieberman Software, predicts that there is a possibility that Anonymous might shut down online accounts in a bid to weaken the recruiting tools of ISIS.
ISIS massively relies on online apps to recruit or to pitch its message, specifically via Skype, web chat, e-mail, YouTube, and, lately, an encrypted messaging app named Telegram.
"If Anonymous takes all that out, it's like capping the revenue of a company," says Sander. "They trade in the lives of poor misguided people."
Ken Westin, a security market specialist at software vendor Splunk expects that if ISIS takes the risk seriously, this may compel it to be more "security savvy." He adds that Anonymous' move may boost the capacity of the terrorist group when it comes to encrypting communications and safeguarding their sites.
"It could have a negative impact," says Westin.
Anonymous is already 12 years old. It is believed that the group is responsible for a wide variety of hacking attacks on Visa, MasterCard, Bay Area Rapid Transit, Federal Reserve and the Zimbabwe government.
Previously, the group claimed responsibility for the attacks on the government sites of Tunisia, Turkey, Australia and Canada.
In the meantime, under its #OpISIS campaign, which commenced in January, the group has been successful in closing down over 5,500 Twitter accounts allegedly associated with ISIS.
Furthermore, Telegram earlier reported that it blocked 78 channels in its platform related to the terrorist group. Another group, named CntrlSec, also contributed in suspending over 72,000 Twitter accounts since it began its campaign way back January.
