Anonymous declares war

So for those of you who don't know Anonymous declared war against Al-Qaida. To be more specific the terrorists who shot up Charlie Hebdo, how do you feel about this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqbwqmb8P00

Well they are at least putting themselves to good use, definitely support them to troll the hell out of those assholes.

will be of limited consequence, even as vigilante justice (regardless of whether or not that is desirable)... anonymous are in the world of electrons, the people who shot up the journalists/cartoonists are in the world of atoms...

Exactly. BUT, it may work. Terrorism, especially that motivated by religious extremism, is incredibly difficult to fight. The leaders of these organizations know their message is bullshit. They know that they are only in this to gain power and wealth for themselves. They don't care about the people or their own soldiers. They simply use religion to control them and use them to gain power and wealth for themselves. (just ask the ISIS leader about his lovely Rolex and Omega watches he likes to wear under his robe).

That being said, these soldiers who are joining these organizations really believe it. They don't fear death. They welcome it because they believe they will be rewarded in the afterlife. Because these people have no other alternative they join up and fight. So fighting them in the traditional sense is very difficult. 

So Anonymous may be able to (if they do it right) expose extremist leaders hypocrisy and show the disenfranchised young people who carry out their work there are alternatives to violence. 

Agree with Relinquis, most of the hacktivists are mere hippies compared to nation-scale capabilities, but any support is a plus, unless they go all leeroy-jenkins.

yeah but still something needs to happend I stand by anonymous hope they get some results.

and electrons are atoms .. :3

EDIT: Electrons are Leptons if you wanna be really specific.

and sure anonymous doesn't have stuff like the NSA or what ever government agency does, but is still hope they can screw with people or companies that host sites that recruit or spread propaganda.

Relinquis, your bank account is just "Electrons", but if those electrons were to disappear, there would be some rather upsetting real world consequences. Food for thought? InfoSec is no joke. You can cost a business millions of dollars in lost revenue in just a few minutes, or destroy somebodies life through Doxxing. 

 

The "Anonymous" group is very interesting, but I feel it is largely misunderstood. Anybody who cannot be identified is anonymous; the notion that their is some overarching cyber-activist network is actually an adoption of the movement by people who have an explicit agenda. These high-production value political reactionary videos are mostly script-kiddie clickbait. The fact is that there are anonymous actors of all different political affiliations, blackhat, grayhat, and whitehat, activists and criminals, and this one "Anonymous" movement is a very specific group, with a mysterious agenda. Search on Youtube for "Hacktivism Anonymouse 2013" for a free BBC documentary about the origins of the "Anonymous" group. The wikileaks connection and the political zeitgeist behind the groups activities, are worth further examination. As far as the OP, I don't really have any reaction.

 

Look at how Sabu (Hector Monsegur) was turned by the FBI so quickly. When he was arrested, after providing information and service to the FBI, 'Anonymous' posted: "#Anonymous is a hydra, cut off one head and we grow two back"...But the same can be said of informants. I wouldn't doubt that the infiltration of these groups by Federal Agents goes much deeper.

 

I realise that Annonymous and such groups can harm a normal individual or affect a small business, but they can't stop someone pointing a gun or a rocket launcher at another person.

ISIS, for example, are armed to the teeth with US-made, US-ally bought weapons. Rockets, guns, various types of vehicles and such... not to mention the financial and material support the US gave the "rebels"/"free syrian army" back when the US was on their side against the Syrian regime.

I don't see how some DDOS attack, Doxxing  or such will make a difference... These guys control a country now.

Oh, I absolutely disagree. Political power may grow out of the barrel of a gun, as Mao Zedong famously said, but there are so many ways that Cyber-warfare can take place laterally that it absolutely has an effect on armies, even militia armies, in the real world. Just as an example:



"The wave of Arab revolutions and uprisings that has been shaking all corners of the Arab Middle East since 2011 and that has come to be known as the Arab Spring owed a major portion of its success to online activism. Online activism can actually enable the creation of a vibrant and active civil society, through encouraging civic engagement and boosting political participation. Citizens' access to information and their ability to utilize this information for the purpose of enhancing civil society have been affected by the Internet and other communication technologies. "

http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7994 

 

Digital communication can foment change from within a society, whereas violence destroys it.

 

Cyber-activists could approach things from "The Outside" by attacking bank accounts of supporting organizations (Mosques, Muslim groups, or others that could [reasonably or unreasonably] be considered part of a perceived problem), or even by releasing documents or attacking politicians to goad them into taking specific actions. Knowledge is power, and the internet is the information super-highway. Yes, it's nearly impossible to directly attack a foreign militia hiding in a cave in the Middle East, but there are endless avenues for hacktivist groups to change the economic and political landscape that the group exists in. 


Recently, a group claiming to be ISIS hacked the US CENTCOM's Twitter account. What if this was Anonymous false-flagging as ISIS in order to stir up the US to take action? 

what politicians? ISIS do not have town hall meetings or a congress.

I don't think you understand the nature of what we are talking about, whether ISIS or other radical groups. We're not talking about caves. We're talking about an armed group that has taken over entire cities with million + of people by force. Some teenager with a broadband connection isn't going to make a difference to them.

Terrorists groups rely heavily on outside donations, largely processed through the internet, and recruitment through social media and the web. There is absolute evidence that terrorists heavily depend upon online communication and funding.

 




http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasperhamill/2014/06/27/anonymous-hacktivists-prepare-for-strike-against-isis-supporters/

 

Here is an article from Forbes about the Anonymous threat. This is a major business publication and it's publishing information that implies that donors in Kuwait and Saudia Arabia may be attacked by the hacking group, for their purported support of Terrorist Groups. 

 

Think about the malware that wiped the computers at the Iranian Uranium Enrichment compound, and the malware that wiped the South Korean banks, and the malware that wiped out 2/3 of SPE's network. If that happened to the a major Middle Eastern banking system, it could destabilize the  area and force UN peacekeepers or US/Coalition troops in. 

not going to happen. These groups don't have one bank, or one funding relationship. for the kind of malware you're talking about to be effective it would have to take down banking systems in entire countries for a sustained period of time. Ironically, that's the kind of scenario where ISIS type groups would thrive. Not that that would even happen. It is beyond what Anonymous is capable of and it would be an act of terrorism against innocent civilian populations and entire countries. Of the countries they are targeting, Qatar is the base of US CENTCOM in the region and is an important US ally and one of the largest producers of natural gas globally, the other is another major ally, Saudi Arabia.

Anonymous are just a bunch of keyboard jockeys. The most they can do is deface some government website, or mess with a handful of businesses or leak celeb photos. That Forbes article is from over six months ago reporting potential attacks within weeks. Inconsequential.

Ultimately time will tell if they're threats are just internet boasting or something of substance. We'll see.

lol

When I first read this I started laughing hysterically.

Then I realized it was real.

I don't think the group we are referring to as "Anonymous" is a real threat, most of their attacks are publicity stunts, so I think we agree on the fact that their "Declaration of War" is hyperbole. In general, however, there is a real potential for hacktivists or blackhats to have an effect on geopolitics, at every level. Every world power has a cyber security task force specifically commissioned to asses and react to threats against computer networks. An example of how a small attack can be amplified is from 2013. Just one tweet from a hacked AP Twitter account wiped billions off of the stock market ledgers. 

 

As part of Anonymous I totally agree with this!

Hater. Obviously you have no idea what your talking about :p

haha... obviously i don't ;)

The biggest threat to "world peace" is ignorance .

Good form them. But i doubt DDOS ing some web sights are going to slow them down.