Cyberbattles in the shadows

October 23, 2008 12:16 PM

Hacking Al-Qaeda's websites: Hacker wars are the latest front in the fight against Al Qaeda. CNN says here that AQ may be unable to post propaganda videos as a result. But who is attacking? As far back as 2002, people speculated that Western intelligence agencies had compromised them, and a pornographer claimed he did. More recently, there are Shiite vs. Sunni battles, as when Ayatollah Sistani's website was cracked. In 2004, Zarqawi's site was breached.
posted by msalt (10 comments total)

A major accomplishment of Western Intelligence that will live in infamy... An act of dangerous and supremely rewarding espionage that will be told in intelligence agencies for years to come: The day of SeRvErZ OWnEd, the day an outspoken radical was silenced by the brave and bold actions of a few committed individuals, living their lives in secret, unable to confess their double lives to anyone at all.

Or you know, maybe it was just a high-profile vulnerable site.
posted by MysticMCJ at 12:25 PM on October 23, 2008

Yeah, CNN should know a thing or two about propaganda.
posted by Zambrano at 12:33 PM on October 23, 2008

I remember it wasn't too long ago that kavkazcenter was getting stomped on a monthly basis. These aren't the most web-savvy bunch, as you can see. And if you DDOS a secessionist Chechen website, you can pretty much expect that Russian authorities aren't going to turn over every stone looking for you. I think hackers-to-be use these sites as tackle dummies before they take a crack at larger targets.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:40 PM on October 23, 2008

"We could have put whatever we wanted on their Web site and they would think it was coming from one of their own, not from their enemy," he said.

Somehow I like the idea of him putting naked pictures of his wife on there.

Too bad you didn't link to his porn site. Not that I would go to a place full of such infidels.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:19 PM on October 23, 2008

What? Al Qaeda has it's own website? When did this happen? I thought they were using various forums and newsgroups and blogs and news outlets and such. When did they centralize?
posted by robtf3 at 3:41 PM on October 23, 2008

Yeah, I know, It's weird. They had a face, but no facebook? Their threat is low since they chose facebook and a flickr feed...
posted by Elmore at 3:55 PM on October 23, 2008

They had a face, but no facebook? Their threat is low since they chose facebook and a flickr feed...

Alman Al-Zawahiri has added you as a Friend.

Abdullah Yusuf Azzam has poked you.

Osama bin Laden challenges you to "Pirate Trivia".

Ali Mohamed has written on your wall: "sup dawg u crazee lololol"

Omar Abdel-Rahman invites you to join the Event "Speak to the Camera While Holding a Microphone and Keeping Your Right Index Finger Raised"
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:10 PM on October 23, 2008 [2 favorites]

Oh, Al Qaeda is on Facebook, alright.
posted by msalt at 5:37 PM on October 23, 2008

OK, it was childish, I admit, but I did hack one of Al Qaeda's websites about two years ago.

I was just poking around, managed to find myself on the admin page for dieamericaninfidel.org, so figured what the hell, might as well mess with it.

Found Osama's cell phone number listed there, and I changed it to a different number. I bet the poor folks at the admissions office for Regent University were a bit surprised.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:17 AM on October 24, 2008

You didn't order any pizzas for him!?!?!
posted by msalt at 12:24 PM on October 24, 2008 [1 favorite]