Anonymous has taken down 5,500 ISIS accounts

The collective of hackers Anonymous claimed Tuesday to have taken out 5,500 Twitter accounts used by the Islamic State organization.

The hacking collective Anonymous launched the operation #OpParis against the ISIS in response to the dramatic Paris attacks. The hackers belonging to Anonymous are targeting social media accounts used by members of the terrorist organization. Anonymous released a video on the Internet announcing that his members will catch ISIS members online. In the video, an avatar of Anonymous with a strong French accent declared war to the terrorists

Loading video

In a couple of days, more than five thousand Twitter account were brought down by Anonymous, as announced by the collective in Tweet.

“We report that more than 5500 Twitter account of #ISIS are now #down! #OpParis #Anonymous #ExpectUs,” states the tweet published by Anonymous on Tuesday.

It is not clear how Anonymous has taken down the Twitter accounts used by the ISIS. Anonymous said it posted the accounts to an online forum using the hashtag #daeshbags (Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group).

On the hacker side also the hackers belonging to the ISIS have released a statement in response to Anonymous’s #OpParis, the members of the ISIS called Anonymous – IDIOTS.

“The #Anonymous hackers threatened… that they will carry out a major hack operation on the Islamic state (idiots),” the message said.

The message was posted via the messaging service Telegram, the communication channel mostly used by the ISIS members in this period.

This is just the beginning, for sure in the next days the hackers will surprise us. Don’t forget that Anonymous is inviting its members to avoid to launch DDoS attacks against the ISIS websites, instead the collective is asking to hack them stealing sensitive data to disclose.

The ISIS is warning its members, on a separate Telegram Channel, Khilafah News, the ISIS spread a message to its followers that instructs them on how to prevent getting hacked by Anonymous.

Below the list of recommendations:

Don’t open any links unless sure of the source.
Change Internet Protocol addresses “constantly.”
Do not talk to people you do not know on Telegram.
Do not talk to people on Twitter direct messaging.
Do not make the same email as your username on Twitter.

The ISIS message was shared among various ISIS channels on Telegram.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Anonymous, ISIS, Paris Attacks)

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.