Anonymous vows revenge on ISIS for Brussels attacks
The hacking group Anonymous announced that it will increase its cyber campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in retaliation for Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels.
“To the supporters of Daesh, we will track you down, we will find you, we are everywhere and we are more than you can imagine,” a spokesperson wearing the group’s signature Guy Fawkes mask said in an unverified video launching “OpBrussels.”
Daesh is an alternative name for the terrorist group that is considered derogatory by its members.
{mosads}The loosely affiliated collective vowed to begin by hacking ISIS websites, shutting down extremist Twitter accounts and “stealing their Bitcoins.”
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the coordinated bombings that killed over 30 people.
After the November attacks on Paris that killed 130, Anonymous announced that “war is declared” on ISIS and to expect “major cyberattacks.”
It had also announced a similar campaign after the attacks on the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January 2015.
The group launched a series of denial-of-service attacks on ISIS sites, flooding the pages with phony traffic to disable them, and outed a number of Twitter accounts used by members of the terrorist organization.
But some questioned the effectiveness of the hacks, because extremists can easily revive Web activities under new accounts.
Some foreign policy experts also criticized the campaign on the grounds that it could hurt intelligence gathering. Officials use ISIS’s prominent online presence to track its activities, and some suspect U.S. spies have created fake jihadist websites to attract its members.
The hacking group at large has come under fire in the past for leaking inaccurate information and failing to control its members.
A hacktivist claiming to be a member of the group recently declared cyber war on Donald Trump to protest his “appalling” candidacy, but a Twitter account that regularly tweets on behalf of the group quickly denounced the account that made the announcement as “not a credible source.”
The latest video — posted on YouTube — also calls for compassion towards Muslims.
“You don’t have to hack [ISIS]. If you stand up against discrimination in your country, you harm them much more than by hacking their websites,” said the spokesperson, whose voice was computerized.
“The Islamic State cannot recruit Muslims in Europe if they are accepted and included in the society. So we want all of you to stand together against discrimination,” the voice said.