5 ms·

Does ISIS really have the resources to carry out criminal computer activities? From what I understand, they are a group with limited technological advantage, an

by _RPM 12y ago

Does ISIS really have the resources to carry out criminal computer activities? From what I understand, they are a group with limited technological advantage, and there is no way they could carry out a major attack on the Internet.

ossreality 12y ago
What "resouces" do you need? A credit card and a curious 20 year old could inflict a massive amount of damage with little effort, given a vulnerability to exploit. I can spin up a thousand VMs in 4 cloud providers in seconds. By the way, I'm aware I was hellbanned. It was well over a year ago. My comments were on-topic and polite before I was banned. The funny thing is, the person I was banned for arguing with has burned through half a dozen accounts. I refuse to play ball with HN's shitty policy of hellbanning and so I post like an asshole. Hellbanning is exceedingly rude and everytime I want to comment I remember how much it pisses me off so I decide to let it affect my comments. (For context, my original HN account was nearly in the Top 10 [with an average of ~10] when it was banned for arguing with the same person ironically.) Awe, that's too bad. Jamesaguilar and I see eye-to-eye on most things and I respect their attention to bs sexism and racism on HN :)
geographomics 12y ago
(Note to ossreality, who also replied to this comment: you appear to be hellbanned.)
- jamesaguilar 12y ago
  With good reason, based on his posting history. It's pointless to warn someone like this that they are hell-banned. Any new account they make will suffer a similar fate within a small handful of posts.
- jamesaguilar 12y ago
  Re: his edit, thank you for your compliment, but I just think there are more constructive ways to approach most conversations than accusing people of talking out of their ass, or calling them losers. :( If you truly were banned for arguing with someone important, that's unfortunate, but I saw two good reasons to ban you in your most recent three comments. Maybe I just caught you on a bad day.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
Havoc 12y ago
Must admit I'm slightly amused that this is even being considered as a plausible theory. They're busy executing elderly with AK47s...thats very far away from physically cracking open servers in a western data center and inserting USB devices with targeted attack software.
- Crito 12y ago
  It is not merely the uneducated who can subscribe to extremist ideologies. When the unskilled highschool grad gets off the plane and signs up, they are going to give him a rifle. When the engineer gets off the plane and announces himself as such, there is a chance that he will be put to better use.
  - junto 12y ago
    Sadly, the fastest route to martyrdom is quite literally by biting a bullet, so no, AK-47's all round. Keyboards don't have quite the same sacrificial qualities.
    - nilbot 12y ago
      I can imagine that those AKs are just the front. There might be someone or some organizations that sponsor the extremists. Money or otherwise. People who might benefit from instability, hatred towards the US etc.
    - JonnieCache 12y ago
      Islamist groups are not so fixated on martyrdom and the proverbial 72 virgins as you may have been led to believe.
      - vegedor 12y ago
        Islamist Groups ight not be as homogenous as the GP implies, either. Some higher ups might actually have perfidious goals. But what am I talking about, religion was never used as means to manipulate followers, ever.
  - 12y ago
grrowl 12y ago
To assume the only adversary is ISIS would be extremely foolish. Any actors within a system side with particular groups and ideologies. The Tor project maintainers align to an ideology shared with many other groups, just as ISIS align with a shared ideology, NSA/FBI etc share another... More likely NSA/FBI/nation-state level, or a large hacking group, although the former has clear motive here. ISIS has little motive for this. Use your common sense.
nikolak 12y ago
Well they do have money, while they may not have members that possess the necessary knowledge I'm sure they could finance such attacks. That being said, they do not look to me like a group that would be using, and generally be interested in, such tactics.
ridgewell 12y ago
ISIS has foreign supporters, and I promise you there's at least one sysadmin or netsec professional out there backing the outfit.
- internetisthesh 12y ago
  I considered partnering with a data center owner in the US until I learned that his organisation was monitored by NSA for doing bad stuff in Syria. As you say, of course ISIS and similar organizations has supporters among "ordinary people" in EU and US.

by _RPM 12y ago

ossreality 12y ago

What "resouces" do you need? A credit card and a curious 20 year old could inflict a massive amount of damage with little effort, given a vulnerability to exploit. I can spin up a thousand VMs in 4 cloud providers in seconds. By the way, I'm aware I was hellbanned. It was well over a year ago. My comments were on-topic and polite before I was banned. The funny thing is, the person I was banned for arguing with has burned through half a dozen accounts. I refuse to play ball with HN's shitty policy of hellbanning and so I post like an asshole. Hellbanning is exceedingly rude and everytime I want to comment I remember how much it pisses me off so I decide to let it affect my comments. (For context, my original HN account was nearly in the Top 10 [with an average of ~10] when it was banned for arguing with the same person ironically.) Awe, that's too bad. Jamesaguilar and I see eye-to-eye on most things and I respect their attention to bs sexism and racism on HN :)

geographomics 12y ago

(Note to ossreality, who also replied to this comment: you appear to be hellbanned.)

jamesaguilar 12y ago
With good reason, based on his posting history. It's pointless to warn someone like this that they are hell-banned. Any new account they make will suffer a similar fate within a small handful of posts.
jamesaguilar 12y ago
Re: his edit, thank you for your compliment, but I just think there are more constructive ways to approach most conversations than accusing people of talking out of their ass, or calling them losers. :( If you truly were banned for arguing with someone important, that's unfortunate, but I saw two good reasons to ban you in your most recent three comments. Maybe I just caught you on a bad day.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

Havoc 12y ago

Must admit I'm slightly amused that this is even being considered as a plausible theory. They're busy executing elderly with AK47s...thats very far away from physically cracking open servers in a western data center and inserting USB devices with targeted attack software.

Crito 12y ago
It is not merely the uneducated who can subscribe to extremist ideologies. When the unskilled highschool grad gets off the plane and signs up, they are going to give him a rifle. When the engineer gets off the plane and announces himself as such, there is a chance that he will be put to better use.
- junto 12y ago
  Sadly, the fastest route to martyrdom is quite literally by biting a bullet, so no, AK-47's all round. Keyboards don't have quite the same sacrificial qualities.
  - nilbot 12y ago
    I can imagine that those AKs are just the front. There might be someone or some organizations that sponsor the extremists. Money or otherwise. People who might benefit from instability, hatred towards the US etc.
  - JonnieCache 12y ago
    Islamist groups are not so fixated on martyrdom and the proverbial 72 virgins as you may have been led to believe.
    - vegedor 12y ago
      Islamist Groups ight not be as homogenous as the GP implies, either. Some higher ups might actually have perfidious goals. But what am I talking about, religion was never used as means to manipulate followers, ever.
- 12y ago

grrowl 12y ago

To assume the only adversary is ISIS would be extremely foolish. Any actors within a system side with particular groups and ideologies. The Tor project maintainers align to an ideology shared with many other groups, just as ISIS align with a shared ideology, NSA/FBI etc share another... More likely NSA/FBI/nation-state level, or a large hacking group, although the former has clear motive here. ISIS has little motive for this. Use your common sense.

nikolak 12y ago

Well they do have money, while they may not have members that possess the necessary knowledge I'm sure they could finance such attacks. That being said, they do not look to me like a group that would be using, and generally be interested in, such tactics.

ridgewell 12y ago

ISIS has foreign supporters, and I promise you there's at least one sysadmin or netsec professional out there backing the outfit.

internetisthesh 12y ago
I considered partnering with a data center owner in the US until I learned that his organisation was monitored by NSA for doing bad stuff in Syria. As you say, of course ISIS and similar organizations has supporters among "ordinary people" in EU and US.