The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) released a statement on Monday responding to Anonymous’s declaration of “total war,” calling the hacker group “idiots” and offering guidance to pro-ISIS supporters to protect against cyber attacks. 
 
 Anonymous threatened that it would launch its “biggest operation ever” against ISIS in response to the wave of shooting and suicide bomb attacks in Paris that left at least 129 people dead. 
 
 The “Islamic Cyber Army” posted a response to Anonymous’s video release on its purported official channel on the privacy app Telegram, giving a series of tips to ISIS supporters. The post was shared by Anonymous-affiliated accounts on social media, such as the group’s Venezuelan arm. Jihadi monitoring network SITE Intelligence also confirmed the post. 
 
 “The Anonymous hackers threatened in new video release that they will carry out a major hack operation on the Islamic State (idiots),” ISIS’s post read. “What they gonna hack...all they can do is hacking twitter accounts, emails etc…” 
 
 The militant group then listed a series of steps that its supporters should follow online, including not opening suspicious links, changing their locations using workaround technology on their phones and computers, avoiding contact with unknown people on their phone and computers and to renaming their email addresses. 
 
 The post says: “Do not talk to to people u don’t know on telegram and block them if u have to cause there are many glitches in telegram and they can hack you by it. Don’t talk to people on twitter DM cause they can hack u too. 
 
 “Do not make your email same as your username on twitter this mistake cost many Ansar (helpers) their accounts and the kuffar published their IP so be careful.” 
 
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 Anonymous’s two-minute video threatening ISIS has amassed more than five millions views since it launched on Saturday. "War is declared. Get prepared," a masked figure warned the group in the video. 
 
 "The French people are stronger than you and will come out of this atrocity even stronger,” the figure added. “Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down. You should know that we will find you and we will not let you go.” 
 
 The hacker said that the infamous group will use its cyber skills to "unite humanity" and said that terrorists should "expect massive cyber attacks." 
 
 Anonymous has targeted ISIS for a number of months following the attacks on the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and its hack of U.S. CENTCOM's Twitter account. The group has uncovered the Twitter accounts of ISIS members and hacked a number of the group's sites. 
 
 The hacktivist group has dismantled at least 149 of ISIS’s affiliated websites, flagged approximately 101,000 Twitter accounts and nearly 6,000 propaganda videos, U.S. magazine Foreign Policy estimates. 
 
 This story has been updated to clarify that the targeting of ISIS by Anonymous followed ISIS's attacks on Charlie Hebdo and U.S. CENTCOM's Twitter account. ||||| The hacker collective Anonymous on Sunday released a list of more than 1,000 Twitter accounts that it claims Islamic State supporters use to spread propaganda. That was just the first salvo of an intensified campaign against the terror group following last Friday's Paris attacks. 
 
 The question, however, is whether Anonymous' effort and that of a growing number of like-minded digital vigilantes in recent months will have any impact on the militants' digital networks, or are they only hindering government efforts to disrupt the jihadi group. 
 
 In a YouTube video Monday, an individual wearing the collective's trademark Guy Fawkes mask promised that Anonymous activists from around the world would hunt down the Islamic State. "We are going to launch the biggest ever operation against you," the masked individual warned. "Expect very many cyberattacks." (A slightly different English language version of the video is available here.) 
 
 Following the deadly attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo earlier this year, Anonymous launched a campaign dubbed #OpISIS to expose and destroy websites, social media accounts, and e-mail addresses of those it considered as affiliated with the terror group. Since then, it has claimed credit for shutting down several websites, and exposing e-mails, private networks, Internet addresses, and more than 9,000 Twitter accounts allegedly being used by Islamic State (ISIS) activists. 
 
 It's unclear how exactly Anonymous plans on escalating that effort with it new #OpParis campaign launched over the weekend. According to Anonymous, it has already taken down more than 3,800 pro-ISIS Twitter accounts following the Paris attacks. Members of the collective are now apparently working on setting up teams for intelligence gathering, intelligence analysis and dissemination as part of a broader, more organized effort to hit ISIS capabilities online. 
 
 Supporters and sympathizers of ISIS have used social media channels and the Internet extensively to communicate, to recruit, and to coordinate supporters across continents. By going after the online accounts used by members and supporters of the group, Anonymous hopes to degrade and diminish the ability for ISIS to communicate and proselytize using the Internet. 
 
 But its penchant for doling out vigilante style justice replete with hyperbolic messages of vengeance and retribution may not be quite what’s needed now, say analysts. For one thing, regardless of how successful Anonymous might prove in exposing Twitter accounts and shutting down websites, it's simple for ISIS supporters to reestablish new ones. 
 
 In fact, many ISIS supporters are likely using the same tactics that members of Anonymous and other hacktivist groups use to stay ahead of those following them, says Joe Gallop head of the hacktivism intelligence practice at iSight Partners. The group behind the Paris attacks, for instance, may have used encrypted chat technology to communicate with each other, a tactic that hacktivists have long used to stay under the law enforcement radar, Mr. Gallop said. 
 
 "Terrorist organizations are just taking a page out of the hacktivist playbook," he says. In the same way that it's hard to take down Twitter accounts belonging to groups such as Anonymous, it's hard to completely curtail the ability to terror groups to communicate simply by shutting down Twitter accounts and taking down websites. "What they are doing is more of simple harassment. In the end it is not going to help law enforcement to prevent an actual physical attack like what happened in Paris," Gallop said. 
 
 There's also the question of whether efforts by Anonymous and others to take down sites and channels that terrorist supporters might be using to communicate could actually disrupt law enforcement investigations. 
 
 When such activities are not undertaken in coordination with counterterrorism practitioners from within government, the actions of groups such as Anonymous can become counterproductive, says Michael Smith II, principal and chief operating officer at Kronos Advisory, a strategic advisory firm. 
 
 "Unless these activities are being coordinated with investigators who possess the authority to disrupt terrorists’ activities, there is a good chance these activities will prove disruptive in relation to ongoing investigations," Mr. Smith warns. 
 
 Smith currently acts as an intermediary in funneling ISIS-related data, collected by a group called Ghost Security Group, to government counter-terrorism officials. The focus is on passing along information gathered by the group related to ISIS attack plots and recruitment efforts. 
 
 Members of Ghost Security Group previously belonged to GhostSec, a group of hacktivists that like Anonymous has been working to disrupt the online activities of Islamic terror groups such as ISIS, Al Qaeda and Al Shabab. In fact, GhostSec was one of two hacktivist groups that worked with Anonymous to expose the Twitter accounts of ISIS supporters, following the Charlie Hebdo attacks earlier this year. 
 
 By setting up Ghost Security Group, some members of GhostSec have deliberately distanced themselves from Anonymous and its legacy of hooded figures and Guy Fawkes masks. The goal in shedding the outlaw image is to get government counter terrorism officials to pay more attention to the data they are collecting on ISIS and other terror groups. 
 
 The effort is paying off, Smith claimed. In July 2015, Ghost Security Group handed over information to federal authorities that was used to disrupt a plan to attack Jews and British citizens in Tunisia. 
 
 Since September, Smith has acted as an intermediary between Ghost Security and the government, supplying official with information on the Islamic State’s use of certain communications platforms that are more difficult to monitor than Twitter or Facebook. 
 
 "Data collected by Ghost Security Group and passed to law enforcement and intelligence professionals by me has added value to counterterrorism operations," Smith said, pointing to an article in Foreign Policy before the Paris terror attacks in which former Gen. David Petraeus is quoted as saying information provided by organizations like Ghost Security Group could be of value to government. 
 
 Governments have been overwhelmed by the Islamic State's prolific use of Internet technologies to coordinate jihadist activities, in the West in the Middle East and North Africa. So there's plenty of room for outside support, Smith said. 
 
 "However, any activities which are not coordinated with government officials who possess the authority to go out and make arrests, or direct other actions against the Islamic State can inadvertently serve to benefit the enemy." ||||| Anonymous The international hacking collective Anonymous has begun posting alleged personal information of suspected ISIS extremists. 
 
 This comes just a few days after Anonymous declared "war" on ISIS, after the terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks in Paris last weekend. 
 
 Anonymous has already collected lists of Twitter accounts and websites belonging to ISIS in order to take them down, and the group claims to have already successfully taken some of those sites and accounts down. 
 
 The group also leaked alleged personal information about suspected ISIS members. In one instance, an Anonymous Twitter account on Monday evening shared a bunch of names found from an alleged "jihadist site," preceding that list with a message: "ISIS we are coming for you." 
 
 Anonymous has been busy shutting down social media accounts and websites linked to ISIS since January, when the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo was attacked by terrorists. Shortly after that event, Anonymous claimed to have taken down nearly 800 Twitter accounts and 50 email addresses associated with ISIS. 
 
 However, Anonymous has wrongly identified people, including alleged extremists from ISIS and Al Qaeda, in the past. So, it's important to not begin a witch hunt for these people based on this information alone. 
 
 Anonymous operates almost exclusively online and does most of its "activist" work through hacking and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which basically overload servers with tons of bogus requests. Anonymous has also been known to inundate phone networks with spammy phone calls, among other things, in order to disrupt communications. ||||| (TNS) -- A small band of cyber jihadi hunters — including former members of the hacktivist group Anonymous — has been quietly feeding the feds online intel that’s foiled more than 10 terror plots and identified scores of ISIS recruiters and websites, on a mission that’s acquired new urgency in the wake of the Paris attacks. 
 
 “We felt enough wasn’t being done, so we wanted to put our skills to good use,” said the executive director of Ghost Security Group, who only goes by the online hacker name DigitaShadow after numerous ISIS death threats. “We’re completely independent. We survive off donations alone.” 
 
 Ghost Security Group has provided valuable information since June, according to Michael S. Smith II, co-founder of defense contractor Kronos Advisory and a former adviser to a Congressional terrorism task force. 
 
 Smith said he became the de facto middleman between the hackers and the feds after members of Ghost Security Group saw him quoted in a newspaper article about cyber terrorism earlier this year and reached out for help because they weren’t sure their data was getting through the FBI’s tip line. 
 
 “When they first reached out, I wasn’t sure if they were just enthusiastic people who wanted to help,” Smith told the Herald. “I was soon pleasantly surprised.” 
 
 Ghost Security Group sent him screen shots several weeks later with communications about a plot targeting British and Jewish bystanders at an open-air market in Tunisia popular with tourists. The information was used to disrupt a terror cell and prevent a July 4 terrorist attack, Smith said. 
 
 “When you look at what happened with the Tunisia data, they literally saved lives,” said Smith. “That’s what’s remarkable — that a small group of people can have that kind of impact.” 
 
 In July, Smith said he showed authorities the group’s information on planned suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia. Smith said it’s unclear how the authorities used or shared that data, but within 24 hours, Saudi forces arrested hundreds of ISIS members in a sweep. 
 
 The group has also identified dozens of ISIS recruiters and provided pivotal data showing terrorists moving from Twitter to the Telegram messaging app, according to Smith. 
 
 “It’s not that the government is incapable of doing this,” said Smith. “The use of the Internet by the Islamic State is so unprecedented in scope, so prolific that it’s frankly overwhelmed the system. There’s a need for more eyes than are available inside government at this point. I would say they are receptive to help.” 
 
 The FBI declined the Herald’s request for comment on the group. 
 
 DigitaShadow says he works 16-hour days and his group has taken down more than 100,000 Twitter accounts, nearly 150 websites and 6,000 videos connected to ISIS. They also vet tips on ghostsecuritygroup.com. 
 
 Ghost Security Group first tries to alert companies whose servers may unwittingly host terrorist websites. 
 
 “If they don’t listen to us within a week, we shut it down by force,” he said. “Anything with intelligence value, we leave intact.” 
 
 The group formed in January after the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Some members of Ghost Security Group met through Anonymous — although DigitaShadow stresses they have since broken all ties with Anonymous and operate under a set leadership structure. 
 
 He said the 14 members, who work from the U.S., Europe and the Middle East, are men and women ages 25 to 50. Some have military backgrounds. 
 
 The group also quietly alerts the feds when they go undercover in ISIS forums, Smith said — a distinction that sets it apart from Anonymous, the loosely organized underground group that also stepped up its war against the Islamic State this week. 
 
 “Anonymous may go out and do the same thing — create handles and engage with Islamic State members online — and they are going to be misidentified as terrorists,” said Smith. “And the federal authorities are going to waste time and money monitoring Anonymous when they could be spending time on others.” 
 
 ©2015 the Boston Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
– Anonymous is following through with its promise to target ISIS in a cyber war after the Paris terror attacks. Operating under the hashtags #opISIS and #opParis, the group has begun leaking the personal details of alleged ISIS recruiters, reports the Independent. Anonymous also has compiled lists of social media accounts linked to extremists in an attempt to have them removed, and at least one post reveals the physical address of a suspected recruiter in Europe. Another list, spotted by Tech Insider, includes more than 80 names, though the site notes that Anonymous has wrongly identified extremists before. The group is also working to take down ISIS-affiliated websites using denial-of-service attacks to overload servers. ISIS, however, seems unperturbed. "All they can do is hacking (sic) Twitter accounts, emails etc.," the terrorist group said in a statement Monday, calling Anonymous a bunch of "idiots." Still, ISIS shared tips with supporters about how to avoid cyberattacks, including altering email addresses, changing a computer's shared location, and ignoring suspicious links, per Newsweek. While Anonymous' attacks could hinder communications between ISIS supporters, analysts tell the Christian Science Monitor that they're unlikely to do much good. "What they are doing is more of simple harassment," one says. "In the end it is not going to help law enforcement to prevent an actual physical attack like what happened in Paris." (ISIS has a 24-hour help desk for jihadis having tech trouble.)