After the terrorist attacks in Paris, the online hacker group known as Anonymous declared that it would be “going to war” with ISIS and its affiliates in what they call OpISIS.
Now the the two groups are fighting on the darknet as Anonymous goes after ISIS’ websites on it.
The darkweb is a hidden sub-sect of the internet, only accessible through software such as Tor. It’s most famous for being a refuge for true freedom on the internet, which is why it also became the home illegal activities such as child pornography and black market sites like the recently defunct Silk Road.
It also recently became the home for some of ISIS’s online recruitment network, which reportedly included nine websites (compared to the 160 websites on the traditional internet).
A week after a terrorist bulletin board website was put online, it was taken down by members of Anonymous called “TorReaper” and “Commander Xavior”, who replaced it with an online Viagra and Xanax seller. it also included the message : “Enhance your calm. Too many people are into this ISIS-stuff.”
TorReaper claims that internet recruitment accounts for 80% of ISIS’ recruitment, which explains why Anonymous is putting so much effort into this fight.
In November, Anonymous helped take down 900 Twitter accounts with apparent terrorist links, as well as providing a list of hundreds more. While Twitter has come forth to state that their list is “highly inaccurate” and that they do not use them, it was still seen as a legitimate blow against ISIS, as is this newest attack.
[Source – The Epoch Times]
