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Comment by _RPM | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Islamist groups are not so fixated on martyrdom and the proverbial 72 virgins as you may have been led to believe.

>It is not merely the uneducated who can subscribe to extremist ideologies.

Indeed. And I'll happily concede that point. I (and many other) are just surprised at the thought process...physical hardware attack in (presumably a western data center)...and the thing that comes to mind is the ISIS??? Really if you tell me Russia I would have bought it. Same for China, Korea, Turkey etc...but jumping straight to the cliched CNN "terror org" that is the flavor of the month...please...

If you put an AK47 into a USB port and pull the trigger, the server is very likely to go offline. Not even reimaging will help.

Reminded me of Starship Troopers scene:

[Ace is having difficulty with throwing knives] Ace Levy: Sir, I don't understand. Who needs a knife in a nuke fight anyway? All you gotta do is push a button, sir. Career Sergeant Zim: Cease fire. Put your hand on that wall trooper. PUT YOUR HAND ON THAT WALL! [Zim throws a knife and hits Ace's hand pinning it to the wall] Career Sergeant Zim: The enemy can not push a button... if you disable his hand. Medic!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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