The Hidden Face of Jihadist Internet Forum Management: The Case of Ansar Al Mujahideen

Exploring the Subculture of Ideologically Motivated Cyber-Attackers

“…The growth of the Internet and ubiquity of technology have created a new landscape for terrorist groups to communicate, fundraise, and gather intelligence about targets in near-real time (Britz, 2015; Conway, 2006; Martin & Augustus, 2016). Although various studies have documented the utility of technology for terrorists, few have considered the extent to which ideologically motivated actors commit cyberattacks against industrial and government targets to cause harm (Freilich, Chermak, & Gruenewald, 2015; Holt & Bolden, 2014; Torres-Soriano, 2016). This study attempted to address this gap in the literature through a qualitative investigation of the influence of motivation on the experience of being a hacker within a sample of 10 Turkish hackers.…”

“…A number of web forums and hacker groups also regularly promote the use of hacks and cyberattacks against the West (Torres-Soriano, 2016). For instance, the al-Farouq forum ran a site-subsection where members encouraged targeting Western websites for electronic jihad through the use of a downloadable library of tools and tutorials to complete an attack (Denning 2010; Pool, 2005).…”

“…For instance, the al-Farouq forum ran a site-subsection where members encouraged targeting Western websites for electronic jihad through the use of a downloadable library of tools and tutorials to complete an attack (Denning 2010; Pool, 2005). The al-Jinan hacker forum also created and offered a free download of a DoS tool called Electronic Jihad and awarded electronic medals to the forum users most effective in targeting and taking down websites that were seen as anti-Islamic (Bakier, 2007; Torres-Soriano, 2016).…”

“…Although extremist groups recognize the value in cyberattacks (Holt & Bolden, 2014; Torres-Soriano, 2016), it is unknown how their motives and beliefs compare with the larger computer hacker community. Hacking is a skill that can be applied for either legitimate security purposes or malicious, criminal endeavors (Franklin et al, 2007; Holt & Lampke, 2010; Jordan & Taylor, 1998; Motoyama et al, 2011; Steinmetz, 2015).…”

“…There have been few empirical investigations of cyberattacks by extremist groups and ideologically driven actors (for exceptions, see Holt & Bolden, 2014; Holt & Kilger, 2012; Holt, Kilger, Chiang, & Yang, 2017; Torres-Soriano, 2016), leading to difficulty in developing counterterror policy and prevention strategies related to ideologically motivated cyber-attackers (Brenner, 2009; Denning, 2010). One reason for the empirical gap on cyber-terror, and ideologically motivated online crimes generally, is the narrow focus of most terrorism definitions developed by researchers and nations alike.…”