Hacking collective Anonymous names and shames websites used by Islamic State for propaganda
HACKERS targeting Islamic State have uncovered the websites used by the death cult to push their propaganda and recruit new members.
HACKERS targeting Islamic State have posted online the websites used by the death cult to push their propaganda and recruit new members.
The international network of ‘hacktivists’ known as Anonymous posted a video online in January declaring war on IS and vowing to track down and destroy jihadist websites.
In the video, uploaded to the group’s Belgium YouTube account and later appearing in English, a man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask — the group’s unofficial symbol — warns hackers will shut down all terrorist accounts on social media in revenge for the killing of staff at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
“We are declaring war against you, the terrorists,” the figure said.
“Disgusted and also shocked, we cannot fall to our knees. It is our responsibility to react.”
Anonymous said this week it aimed to “completely wipe ISIS off the internet”.
“For a long time now we have successfully attacked hundreds of websites and taken down thousands of Twitter and Facebook accounts.”
It posted a link to 70 websites “frequently used by the Islamic State” through Twitter and other social media platforms “for transmission of propaganda, religion, recruitment, communications and intelligence gathering purposes”.
Unfortunately, there is only so much Anonymous can do. The group admitted it was forced to temper its operations because cyber security agencies were “not too happy” with the current state of play. They said taking down websites was counterproductive because surveillance agencies were using them to gather valuable information.
Instead, Anonymous said it would name and shame websites and companies which were “unaware of their customers’ content or turn a blind eye for easy profit and choose to accept blood money”.
Among the websites listed is IslamicAwakening.com, which was operating as normal on Wednesday morning but had its account suspended several hours later.
Some sites operate as forums while others provide news and analysis. Many feature advertisements.
Anonymous singled out US-based web hosting company CloudFlare as hosting the most websites containing IS propaganda.
“CloudFlare is by far the largest offender on this list and they have been made aware of the specified content they are protecting but chose to block us from contacting them rather
than addressing the issue,” the group said.
Anonymous urged consumers to avoid the companies hosting IS content and to hold them “accountable for their less than ethical business practices”.
