Anonymous claims it has eliminated 5,500 ISIS Twitter accounts

The Hill ^ | November 17, 2015 | By Cory Bennet

[Brad from Tennessee]

The hacking group Anonymous said Tuesday it has taken down 5,500 Twitter accounts tied to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The loosely affiliated collective recently declared cyber war on ISIS in the wake of Friday’s terror attacks on Paris that claimed more than 120 lives.

On Tuesday morning, “OpParis,” the team orchestrating the digital assault on ISIS, tweeted, “We report that more than 5500 Twitter account of #ISIS are now #down! #OpParis #Anonymous #ExpectUs.”

Several hours later, OpParis tweeted a link to other ISIS targets, declaring “#ISIS tries to stop us, but we’re smarter.”

The link to a post on the text-sharing site Pastebin contained the Web addresses of alleged ISIS-affiliated websites, dark Web pages, Twitter accounts, Tumblr accounts, Facebook pages and Web servers.

While Anonymous lacks any hierarchy, the group has frequently turned its hacking skills on terrorist groups.

In the wake of the ISIS attacks on the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January, Anonymous declared a similar campaign to expunge the online tools ISIS was using to recruit members, disseminate propaganda and plan attacks.

The hackers ended up posting hundreds of social media accounts and websites that it claimed were affiliated with the jihadist group. It also launched a series of denial-of-service attacks on ISIS sites, flooding the pages with phony traffic to disable them. . .

[FourPeas]

Read down thread for thoughts on why this isn’t necessarily a good thing.

[scrabblehack]

We’ve got a club Facebook account that a former officer set up a long time ago - nobody knows the password or even what e-mail address is attached to it. Could Anonymous help?

[Bubbette]

Greatly respect th3j35t3r. For years he has waged his own private war. Thankful for him being on the front line with his skill and knowledge, at his own peril. We support his efforts...love his shirts!

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Amen! :)

[Chgogal]

Got your POV. Still don't understand how the NSA and other foreign intel agencies work together to get the job done.

[PA Engineer]

They must have broken into the white house servers.

[BwanaNdege]

Well, unless, of course, you're some poor bastard with a video about Islam or something like that in the time frame of a failure of State.

"What difference does it make?"

/sarc

[If we were a nation of laws rather than a nation of personages, she'd be behind bars, awaiting trial, without any possibility of bail.]