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Anonymous declares war against ISIS in wake of Paris attacks

By Koh Wanzi - on 18 Nov 2015, 12:29pm

Anonymous declares war against ISIS in wake of Paris attacks

Hacker collective turned vigilante group Anonymous has declared war against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, in the wake of the coordinated attacks on Paris that left at least 129 people dead.

The group announced on Sunday (the YouTube video has since been taken down) the launch of what it says will be a “massive” cyber campaign against ISIS, designed to bring down the organization’s online presence and neutralize its ability to spread influence via the Internet.

The group took to Twitter for a further declaration of war, referring to the Islamic State by its Arabic acronym, Daesh.

ISIS runs a huge online apparatus that is so slick that even the US government has an agency within its State Department – the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications – dedicated to countering ISIS’ insidious online propaganda. And for the most part, the terrorist group seems to be coming out ahead.

Dubbed Operation Paris, or #OPParis on Twitter, the hacking operation has already announced its latest success on its Twitter account @opparisofficial, where it said that more than 5,500 ISIS Twitter accounts had been taken down.

In a written interview with the BBC, an Anonymous spokesperson cited their goal as follows:

Our main goal in this operation is to identify the perpetrators of the Paris terror attacks and all terrorist organisations linked to them, acquire intel to dig deep into the roots of their manpower, disable their propaganda and stop their reach on social media, release their information to the public, and flag down any threat to mankind.

ISIS has taken a dismissive attitude toward the group, referring to the hackers as “idiots” in an affiliated Telegram channel. Still, it appears to at least be paying some attention as it went on to provide instructions on how members could avoid being hacked, such as by not opening links of unknown provenance.

Anonymous also seems to be roping in the global community in its efforts, releasing a guide for non-hackers wishing to contribute to the effort, including instructions on how to find and neutralize ISIS-linked websites and social media accounts. 

Anonymous has always seemed like a vaguely anarchic group with a history of hacking government, corporate, and religious websites, but it has recently concerned itself with more serious causes. It released a list of alleged Ku Klux Klan sympathizers earlier this month, and its latest move against ISIS further reinforces the new turn the group has taken. 

Source: Engadget

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