Another phase of an online battle against the members of the so-called Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL) group has been launched throughout the world by the Anonymous hacktivists.
These activists are targeting and attacking the online network of supporters and suspected websites of the IS group.
Recently, an emerging offshot of the Anonymous group codenamed GhostSec has revealed that their group members are actively participating in attacking thousands of social media accounts and publicity websites that are being operated by ISIS group.
This anonymous group has also claimed that they have successfully caught and interrupted messages sent between the IS group members when an attack in Tunisia was being planned.
GhostSec, also known as Ghost Security, comprises of 12 listed hackers but apart from that, most of the members are anonymous and working secretly on different projects. The group is under operational since past seven to eight months and pursues towards the monitoring and flagging of different web properties and social media accounts apparently being used by Islamic State.
The Ghost Security members prepared a list of potential Twitter accounts that are being used by the jihadists. By reporting those accounts to Twitter, they have managed to take down more than 60,000 accounts linked to the IS members.
“Every innocent life that Islamic extremists take only serves to strengthen our power and determination. Those who are lost have become part of us.” – GhostSec
This achievement encouraged the anonymous group members to launch a wide range of services including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, brute force attacks, SQL injection.
These advanced attacking methods allowed the group to take down IS websites for a period of time, which results in ceasing their communication network. But their most recent claims disclosed that the GhostSec group caught and interrupted messages sent between the IS group members, and then forwarded those messages to the international law enforcement agency.
It is impossible to speculate that how much of an impact has been made alone by these Anonymous groups in the termination of IS online presence and networks. However, these successful attempts have increased the prominence of Anonymous groups and have resulted in enraging a fight between the cyber forces of the IS jihadists and various Anonymous groups.
#IslamicState, We know you can feel us now. Which one of you is next? #GhostSec #OpISIS pic.twitter.com/3uk7I2BC8s
— WauchulaGhost ? (@WauchulaGhost) August 28, 2015
On the other hand, analysis reveals that the jihadists of Islamic State group are choosing to transfer their web properties to US-hosted websites in an attempt to protect their web-based operations against hacking attempts because strict laws of the United States prohibits hacking.
The members of GhostSec group have also published their mission statement on (ghostsec.org), which states, “Our mission is to eliminate the online presence of Islamic extremist groups such as Islamic State (IS), Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra, Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab in an effort to stymie their recruitment and limit their ability to organize international terrorist efforts.”
GhostSec is the same group who made the news for exposing pro-ISIS sites and hosting companies protecting them.
