al-Qaida online communications knocked offline

Terror group al-Qaida has been punk’d according to a terrorism expert, claiming that they no longer have a trusted operational channel on the Internet to distribute their media and propaganda. According to Evan Kohlmann of Flashpoint Partners, “I really can’t say for certain how or why this happened, other than that it involved apparently separate attacks on both the domain name and data server used by al-Qaida’s trusted forum, Al-Shamukh.” Finally, a hacking session that does not have LulzSec involved.

There are still other jihadi forums left online which enable “the rabble” to communicate with others, but so far not a single one of them are fully trusted by al-Qaida. Kohlmann is definitely an authority in the area as he has spent more than a decade of his life tracking al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations.

There is a list of potential suspects who might actually be responsible behind this attack, comprising of government-sponsored hackers from the U.S. and the U.K., in addition to independent cyber vigilantes. Among the frequent hacktivists who might have been involved is th3j35t3r, a self-described “Hacktivist for good. Obstructing the lines of communication for terrorists, sympathizers, fixers, facilitators, and other general bad guys”.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: Hacking