Virtual Militias

[Cannoneer No. 4]

https://www.infosecisland.com/blogvi...-Campaign.html

Civilian Irregular Psychological Operator at work.

[AdamG]

Place your bets : who done it?

WASHINGTON — Computer hackers shut down al-Qaida's ability to communicate its messages to the world through the Internet, interrupting the group's flow of videos and communiqués, according to a terrorism expert.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43584213...news-security/

[GeorgePBurdell]

coordinated across multiple agencies with the hackers out of NSA doing the heavy lifting

[Rex Brynen]

There's a big debate in the IC as to whether these sorts of attacks are useful (in that they briefly suppress some AQ public relations) or counterproductive (in that if you can access the server, as this attack apparently could, you can use that access to collect very useful intel).

To date, the general opinion has been that such cyberattacks to more harm than good, unless harnessed to a specific purpose.

[anonamatic]

I totally support this type of effort. I think it's a really good idea to be active about dealing with terrorists & other evil types online. I'm not saying don't do observation, but they aren't the sort of endangered species we want to preserve either, so the whole 'leave no footprints' approach is of limited value. Besides crushing their efforts to wreck more havoc in the real world, poking the maggots is a good way of making them move & learning more about them.