#OpISIS is predominately an information warfare campaign. As such; as a Nation, we are lacking in our ability found wanting in our ability to defend against such let alone take the offensive. The main reason is that our entire government appears to be incapable of any type of global traction is based, in no small part, upon the fact that we are focused on the kinetic war. Not only are we NOT winning in cyberspace, we are not engaged in that theater because we do not understand it. By not understanding our enemy’s doctrine, we are incapable, as a Nation, of winning the hearts and minds at a geopolitical level which is mandatory for prosecuting a kinetic campaign.
Anonymous, as a whole, understand the importance of information warfare. More on point, though, they additionally have honed the art of propaganda to a fine art. While some may argue that the lulz is merely based upon long periods of time occupying 4Chan and other cyber hangouts, I am not so sure I agree. To some degree, the lulz which is a term loosely used to describe a multitude of vernacular and metaphysical behaviors such as Forget About It is used within the predominately Italian Eastern Seaboard Communities of the United States, the problem with the lulz is that oft times it takes priority over Mission Objectives.
The concept of the Citizen Militia goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War. While many within the Regular Militia – Continental Army and those whom had combat experience frowned upon the Citizen Militia, the fact of the matter is that without them, America would not be here. In this same light, the two Groups making the most waves, BinarySec and Ghost Security, would be likened to veterans of the Continental Army serving in the Citizen Militia capacity.
When #OpPayback hit mainline, Anonymous had a clearly defined Mission Objective. Fuck Corporate America and most especially if the philosophical undertones even so much as hinted at tampering with freedom. Coming off the first AWK mission in the history of the Anonymous, #OpChanology, wherein Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology were both smacked around like the bitches they were and even their money and Hollywood connections couldn’t cover the bruises left. #Op Payback was different. The 4Chan kids were flexing their muscles; Anonymous had come to the conclusion that they were no longer abstractly playing with scatology and paedo bears, the fact of the matter was that Anonymous realized that collectively they were some bad motherfuckers.
Operation Payback started primarily supporting Pirate Bay, a pseudo Napster, but as in all things which leave the sterile confines of a laboratory environment, political ideology began to foment. During this time, in 2010, the US State Department began doing what Uncle Sam does best by instructing companies like MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal to stop facilitating donations to WikiLeaks. The US was knee deep in a bullshit engagement playing with their new toys over in the Sandbox. And the reality was that a then unknown private by the name of Bradley – Chelsea Manning, had already begun the transfer of the largest amount of classified intelligence the world had ever seen. The recipient? WikiLeaks.
Assigned in 2009 to an Army unit in Iraq as an intelligence analyst, Manning had access to classified databases. In early 2010, she leaked classified information to WikiLeaks and confided this to Adrian Lamo, an online acquaintance. Lamo informed Army Counterintelligence, and Manning was arrested in May that same year. The material included videos of the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike, and the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan; 251,287 U.S. diplomatic cables; and 482,832 Army reports that came to be known as the Iraq War Logs and Afghan War Diary. Much of the material was published by WikiLeaks or its media partners between April and November 2010.
In an online video, Anonymous called for revenge, promising to lash out at the companies that had impeded WikiLeaks. Thus, #OpPayback now became the rallying call for not only a confluence of grievances which had been building against not only the US Government, but really Western Governments as a whole. Additionally, Anonymous had brought a new party favor to the game — LOIC, the Low Orbit Ion Cannon. LOIC was the game changer; Anonymous had lost its innocence in that they had graduated from the all black faxes sent to the Church of Scientology to taking down websites by and through a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The innocence, if you call it that; the lulz, had forever shifted into an offensive setting.
We have been through multiple cycles of Operations represented by the preface #Op. The below is the best attempt I have at properly putting labels and titles to them. If I have fucked them up, get over it and drop me a line to include yours!
By in large, 2006-07 was the Habbo raids; the Hal Turner raid; and the Chris Forcand arrest. 2008 saw #OpChanology and the Epilepsy Foundation Forum take over; the Defacement of the SOHH and the
AllHipHop websites; and the Sarah Palin email hack — that was right up the road from the Foreclosurepedia GHQ. In 2009 the No Cussing Club went down in flames; Anonymous and the Pirate Bay joined forces over the Iranian Elections; and #OpDigeridie Down Under.
2010 brought us #OpTitstorm readdressed Australia’s bullshit over flat chests; the Oregon Tea Raid Party and the combined #Ops Operations Payback, Avenge
Assange, and Bradical; #OpLeakspin; the Zimbabwe Coup on government websites and obviously the Visa – MasterCard – Paypal actions.
2011 really brought us face-to-face with a global, yet decentralized and autonomous Anonymous. They rolled out #OpSony; the taking down of the Fien Gael website; the ushering in of the Arab Spring; the HBGary bitchslap; #OpOuraborus; the first round against the Westboro Baptist Church; the Wisconsin Protests; and the beginning of #OpEmpireState Rebellion. #OpIndia, #OpMalaysia, #OpOrlando, #OpIntifada, #OpAnti-Security, #OpFacebook, #OpBART, Shooting Sheriffs Saturday, Occupy Wall Street, #OpSyria,
#OpDarkNet, the Los Zetos action, #OpBrotherhoodTakedown, the Stratfor deballing, #OpDeepThroat and #OpPharisee rounded out 2011.
2012 saw the CLSEA hack, #OpNigeria, #OpMegaUpload — my boy Kim Dot Com — Anti ACTA European actions, #OpRussia, the Boston PD attacks, the Syrian Government email hacks, the Anti Sec and CIA hacks; INTERPOL, AIPAC and the Vatican website attacks; the KONY slap down, the US Department of Justice leaks, the Judge Rotenberg Center hack, the taking down of Monsanto’s Hungarian website, the Symantec code hack, Occupy Philippines, #OpIndia back again, #OpQuebec, #OpCyprus, #OpJapan, #OpAnaheim, the AAPT and Mexican PRI Party attacks, Peña’s birthday present, #OpMyanmar and the Uganda LGBT Rights case.
Foreclosurepedia’s #OpNAMFS started in 2012 against the National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) and continues through today.
2013 brought us the Steubenville Rape Case, the SEDENA – Mexican Army case and the Aaron Swartz
(RIP) Suicide actions. The Federal Reserve was hit, #OpNorthKorea, #OpIsrael, the Raheteah Parsons death in Canada, the Sabah Crisis, the Philippine Coast Guard take downs, the d0xing of the EDL, the Hawthorne, CA, dog shooting, the attacks on Nigeria for their anti homosexual laws, the DDoS of New Zealand’s GCSB, #OpSingapore, the New Zealand National Party hacks, support with the the anti PDAF movement, and #OpNSA.
2014 brought us #OpFerguson, #OpHongKong, #OpInfoSurge, and #OpKKK. And finally 2015 has brought us #OpCharlieHebdo. #OpAPD, #OpIceISIS, #OpISIS, #OpDeathEaters, #OpStopReclamation, #OpAnonDown, #OpStormFront, the Gas Station wars and the responses to the Philip White Attack.
So, Anonymous has been through the evolutions in less than a decade which most NSA units do not see over the course of multiple Administrations. To say that these folks are not seasoned veterans is to do such at your own peril. And along the way Anonymous has begun to feel the pressure; to begin to create proverbial coding and ideological forks with respect to whom they align with and ultimately with whom they are willing to play in the Sandbox with.
Over the past month, Foreclosurepedia has been speaking with two Anonymous factions whom have dedicated their time and money to fighting the Islamic State (IS) in cyberspace. On the one end of the spectrum is Ghost Security (GhostSec) and on the other end is BinarySec (BinSec). Both are agile, well developed and organized hacktivists, but what separates them is an ironic twist of political dogma — directly interacting with those whom are not Anonymous.
For several weeks I have been speaking with @DigitaShadow of GhostSec and @TouchMyTweets of BinSec. The former is a male and the latter is a female. This is as far as I will go with respect to discussing any personal details I may or may not have about them. Some members of BinSec are actually former GhostSec crew members. All whom I spoke with appeared to both comprehend the risks to life and limb should IS track them down and likewise the penalties should things go South and the US Government needs a Fall Guy. The separation of the two groups; the internal feuds which I am not going to document until after the cyber campaigns have died down as I do not believe is beneficial to either party and would present with an Operational Security nightmare, stems from GhostSec’s overt participation with the US Government.
@DigitaShadow strikes me as an affable fellow. He knows the language of a world I used to occupy many moons ago. This is based on my review of all the conversations I have had, to date. Either that or he has one hell of a predictive analysis machine. 😉 Elocution is an actual science of speech with philology its partner in language. If I were a guessing man, I would say that @DigitaShadow has had formal military training or closely associated with the military. He practiced good INFOSEC and OPSEC. I almost detected a sense of sadness or perhaps melancholy when we discussed BinSec. Don’t get me wrong, GhostSec and BinSec have an ax to grind with each other, but there was no profanity from either Camp towards the other which I felt displayed a great credit to both parties.
The following is a brief overview of what is going on and precisely how high the stakes are. I sat on these to allow enough time to lapse so that there would be a marginal impact upon operational integrity.
@TouchMyTweets @DigitaShadow – Mentions. #binarysec Someone pass me a beer please as it’s past 1am and the bar is closing!
Yes, that’s me in the pix. I like to do a little bit of drag on Wednesday’s after the kids are asleep U know how it is! 😉
Article updated to reflect an Operational Change #OpISIS