Targeting the Islamic State
Philip Golingai, The Star
IN the war against the Islamic State (IS), unlikely heroes have emerged. They are anonymous hacktivists called Anonymous. In #OpISIS, Anonymous hunted down and hacked hundreds of Twitter accounts they suspect to be associated with IS.
Who is Anonymous? Let me allow a 2.12-minute video featuring a computer-generated talking head resembling V, the main character in the movie V for Vendetta, to explain.
“We are: Muslims, Christians, Jews …
We are hackers, crackers, hacktivists, phishers, agents, spies, or just the guy from next door.
We are students, administrators, workers, clerks, unemployed, rich, poor. We are young, old, gay or straight.
We wear smart clothes or rugs, we are hedonists, ascetics, joy riders or activists.
We come from all races, countries, religions and ethnicity.
UNITED AS ONE, DIVIDED BY ZERO …
We Are Anonymous.
REMEMBER … THE TERRORISTS THAT ARE CALLING THEMSELVES ISLAMIC STATE ARE NOT MUSLIMS!!!,” it said.
In 2012, Time magazine named Anonymous The World’s 100 Most Influential People.
“United, if at all, by a taste for shock humour and disdain for authority, this leaderless Internet hive brain is plundering and playing in the electronic networks of an ever shifting enemies list: Arab dictatorships, the Vatican, banking and entertainment firms, the FBI and CIA, the security firm Stratfor and even San Francisco’s BART transport system,” wrote Time.
In a nutshell, Anonymous is a worldwide vigilante hacking collective which attack websites they believe to have infringed on human rights. They have attacked governments (such as the United States, Israel, Tunisia), child porn websites and corporations such as PayPal and Visa.
Those who are against Anonymous have called them a “cyber lynch-mob” or “cyber terrorists” while those supporting them have described them as “freedom fighters” and “digital Robin Hoods”.
Last month, following the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, Anonymous declared war on IS and al-Qaeda.
In the same video, the computer-generated talking head wearing a Guy Fawkes mask warned: “ISIS; We will hunt you, take down your sites, accounts, e-mails and expose you …
“From now on, no safe place for you online …
You will be treated like a virus, And we are the cure …
We Own The Internet …
We are Anonymous, We are Legion, We do not forgive, We do not forget, Expect us.”
Yesterday, as I was typing this story, my laptop hung. I did what most computer illiterates do. I switched it off and switched it on and clicked on the text file where this article was written. The article had disappeared.
My heart sank as I had about 90 minutes before deadline to submit my column. Don’t tell me Anonymous hacked my laptop, I told myself. I prayed to the Cyber God and I switched my laptop on and off.
The article reappeared. I was not targeted by Anonymous.
There are Malaysians whom the hacktivists have targeted. The video also revealed: “The following Facebook accounts suspected to have been keeping contact with the terrorists (IS) in Syria & Iraq. Won’t hurt to keep an eye on them.”
