Ghost Security, also known as GhostSec, is a self-described "vigilante" group that was formed to attack

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

websites that promote Islamic extremism. It is considered an offshoot of the Anonymous hacking collective. According to experts of online jihad activism, the group gained momentum after the ''Charlie Hebdo'' shooting in Paris in January 2015. The group claims to have taken down hundreds of ISIS-affiliated websites or social media accounts and thwarted potential terrorist attacks by cooperating with law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The group uses social media hashtags like #GhostSec - #GhostSecurity or #OpISIS to promote its activities. On 14 November 2015, Anonymous posted a video announcing its "biggest operation ever" against the terrorist group in response to the attacks in Paris, taking down 3,824 pro-ISIS Twitter accounts and

doxxing Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the internet. Historically, the term has been used interchangeably to refer to both the aggregation of this in ...

recruiters. A message posted by an ISIS-affiliated account on encrypted chat service

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

replied defiantly to Anonymous by providing instructions on how to respond to a potential

cyberattack A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricte ...

. On 25 November, an ISIS

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dark web site was reportedly hacked by GhostSec, which replaced the site with an advert for

Prozac Fluoxetine, sold under the brand names Prozac and Sarafem, among others, is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It is used for the treatment of major depressive disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorde ...

. GhostSec found information related to planned terrorist attacks in New York and Tunisia and passed this information on to law enforcement authorities. In the wake of the cooperation with law enforcement, GhostSec decided to "become legit" to more efficiently combat ISIS. The group renamed itself "Ghost Security Group" and by November 2015 ended its association with Anonymous. Those of the members who opposed this development re-formed under the old name of "GhostSec" and maintained Anonymous ties. Both groups continue to operate against ISIS. Lara Abdallat is one of the only members of Ghost Security Group whose identity is public.

References

{{Anonymous and the Internet Hacker groups Internet vigilantism Hacking in the 2010s Anonymous (hacker group)

See also

References