Anonymous claims first victims in war with Islamic State

After restating its intention to wage war on Islamic State following the attacks in Paris, online vigilante group Anonymous has begun leaking more details of communication channels it says are linked to the network, according to the Independent.

It’s not clear what the newspaper’s source is for this latest update, but the reason for keeping it to themselves is the suggestion that it contains the physical addresses of some of the accused.

An Anonymous ‘RedCult’ branch looks to have taken the lead on posting takedown lists online, with around 1,000 Facebook and Twitter accounts, along with email and IP addresses, posted on Pastebin back in February.

It also sought to clarify a few things.

Another similar post has found its way onto Pastebin this week appearing to reveal more than 100 sites linked to Islamic State, many of which seem to have had the connection from their servers interrupted.

This list does not, however, contain any home addresses and so may be unconnected to the Independent report.

It does lead with the same opening statement of principles made in the first Pastebin dump earlier this year, but the #OpISIS and ‘RedCult’ syntax is different. Is this vigilantes being vigilantes, or another anonymous being Anonymous?

A Telegram message from an account believed to be linked to ISIS has responded to Anonymous’ “biggest operation ever”, retorting “what they gonna hack?”, Business Insider reports.

Although the group is believed to have so far dismantled almost 150 Islamic State-linked websites, while flagging more than 100,000 Twitter profiles and 5,900 videos, the actual deactivation of accounts is likely to come from site owners.

Anonymous has also been criticised for flagging sites that are not related to IS, which could play into creating fear and division among ordinary people.

Facebook itself received flack across a number of sites for apparently taking down a group where details of potentially threatening accounts can be logged just “hours before” the Paris attack, before reinstating it.

That’s according to Counter Current News, which calls itself “the primary contact point for #OpISIS [and ‘Red Cult’] from the start”.

We’ll let you decide what to make of that claim.