Information Warfare: To Smite, or Not to Smite

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April 4, 2007: There's an ongoing debate among counter-terrorism experts over whether the Islamic terrorist Internet infrastructure should be attacked. It's no secret that the terrorists use the Internet for recruiting and fundraising. That alone makes those sites a legitimate target. But there are problems. For one thing, the intel people believe these jihadi sites are a good source of information. And then there are the lawyers. These websites are hosted in server computers located in a number of countries, some of which take a dim view of anyone attacking their servers, for any reason. Internet experts also point out that, as quickly as you take down a jihadi site, it can be revived somewhere else. This can happen in seconds, although hours or days is more common.

The war on terrorism does not have a nation as the enemy, but a non-state, international organization. Members don't wear uniforms, and even teach that one should deny membership if caught. This secrecy is understandable, and it extends to the use of the Internet. For the intel people, the most valuable terrorist Internet locations are kept secret. If you take down the public web sites, either via a court order or a hacker attack, it will take a while for its users to find the new location. So the attacks on Jihadi sites do have an impact. Secret locations can be zapped and there will be little, or no, public acknowledgement, but you may have to mess with an innocent server, in another country, in order to do it.

While government and military organizations have been quiet about questionable hacker attacks on jihadi sites, there are civilian individuals and groups making vigilante attacks on terrorist Internet facilities already. Officially, no one condones this, unofficially, many counter-terrorism operatives approve of it, and may even be slipping the vigilantes useful information on potential targets.

The problem with the vigilantes is that many types of attacks involve collateral damage, and violating the laws of foreign countries. Potentially a very sticky business. But, then, counter-terrorism in general is a pretty sticky business. The Internet portion of the war on terror will likely remain in the shadows.

 

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