Tag Archives: Cyberattacks

“Anonymous” Hackers Declare War on ISIS

The hacker collective known as “Anonymous” declared war on ISIS in a video posted on YouTube in response to the horrendous attacks that took place in Paris on Friday.

According to NBC News, the video has yet to be verified by officials, but in the video a spokesman wears the group’s signature Guy Fawkes mask and says in French that the group will use their expertise in a “war” against the Islamic terrorist group.

“Expect massive cyber attacks. War is declared. Get prepared,” the announcer says in French.

“Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down. You should know that we will find you and we will not let you go. We will launch the biggest operation ever against you,” the spokesperson continued, according to translated transcripts of the video.

The spokesman continued to call the members of ISIS “vermin,” and that their actions would not go “unpunished.”

As of Monday at 8:30 a.m. Central Time, the video had accumulated 1.1 million views on YouTube, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The Huffington Post reports that the hacktivist group also posted on Twitter: “Make no mistake: Anonymous is at war with Daesh.” Daesh is another name for ISIS.

Anonymous is a group of international network of activist computer hackers who have claimed responsibility for numerous cyberattacks against corporate, religious, and government websites over the past 12 years. Since the Charlie Hebdo attack in January that led to the death of 17 people, Anonymous has been targeting and shutting down Twitter profiles believed to be used by ISIS and their supporters. The Jerusalem Post reports that the hacktivist group has reported more than 39,000 ISIS accounts to Twitter. Out of those, more than 25,000 have been suspended, but almost 14,000 are still active.

China Still Trying to Hack U.S. Firms, Despite Denials

Despite a recent pact between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Obama to stop cyber war, security services provider, CrowdStrike, has reported that several Chinese state-backed hackers have been carrying out cyberattacks on several U.S. companies, according to NBC.

CrowdStrike claims that they have blocked every attack that they have come across so far and that the hackers seem to be targeting the networks of U.S. technology and pharmaceutical companies.

Just a few weeks ago, Xi visited the United States, promising leaders of American technology companies that the cyber attacks would stop. He also signed an agreement with President Obama that China and the United States would refrain from continued hacks that were aimed at obtaining company trade secrets for commercial advantage.

But two days after the agreement there were two attacks on technology companies, and more hacking attempts have happened since then.

“Seven of the companies are firms in the technology or pharmaceuticals sectors, where the primary benefit of the intrusions seems clearly aligned to facilitate theft of intellectual property and trade secrets, rather than to conduct traditional national-security related intelligence collection which the Cyber agreement does not prohibit,” CrowdStrike wrote in a blog post Monday.

If the cyberattacks continue it could lead to sanctions being placed against Chinese companies according to the agreement made between Xi and Obama.

The U.S. has also been accused of attempting to hack the networks of Chinese companies. Edward Snowden, former NSA contractor, came forward with information on how the U.S. hacked Chinese company, Huawei last year. Government officials continue to state that the reason for the hack was for national security purposes, not economic advantages.

The Chinese government has not made any comments regarding these attacks at this time.