Recently in Internet jihad Category

But remember: the real problem is "Islamophobia."

"10,000 extremist websites on Internet: expert," from AFP, March 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):

There are more than 10,000 extremist websites on the Internet compared to fewer than 100 countering them, an analyst on Tuesday told a conference which stressed the need to rebut militant propaganda.

"In many ways, the terrorists are very successful in cyberspace," said counter-terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna, who heads the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.

"It is very important for us to build in the next 10 years the capacities and capabilities to counter the increasing presence and the operation of these groups in cyberspace."

Speakers at the International Conference on Terrorist Rehabilitation and Community Resilience said moderate Islamic groups and governments should make a concerted effort to counter extremist propaganda on the Internet.

YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social media are increasingly being exploited to spread extremist views, and moderate religious leaders and governments must keep pace to counter their arguments, they said.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a keynote speech that self-radicalisation through constant exposure to radical views online was a "growing phenomenon".

"Jihadist sites and sermons by charismatic ideologue firebrands are just a mouse click away," said Lee, who also stressed the need for closer international cooperation against terrorism.

Some 500 security analysts, academics and religious leaders attended the forum.

Islamic scholar Ali Mohamed, co-chairman of Singapore's Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG), said cyberspace "is shaping up to be the new battleground for hearts and minds".

The RRG counsels and reindoctrinates jailed militants and helps them reintegrate into society, including some arrested in late 2001 for allegedly plotting to bomb US and other targets in the city-state.

"Terrorists are increasingly exploiting the Internet as a tool for mass communication and radicalisation," said Ali.

"RRG believes that this is one of our greatest challenges today -- to deal (with) and counter the pervasive spread of terrorist ideologies and extremist views online."

To counter them, you'll have to acknowledge the real roots of the problem in Islamic texts and teachings.

Censor yourself -- or else. Here's the latest in the Islamic war on free speech: "Muslim hackers target US banks in third round of cyberattacks," from the Global Post, March 7:

Muslim hackers in the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters launched the third phase of their Operation Ababil campaign against US-based banks on Wednesday, making further demands that the YouTube video “Innocence of Muslims” be removed from the web.

Known to many as the Muslim world's Anonymous, Izz ad-Din issued an ultimatum on Tuesday that their distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against American banking institutions would continue unless insults against the Prophet Mohammed were removed from YouTube.

“During runnnig [sic] Operation Ababil Phase 3, like previous phases, a number of american [sic] banks will be hit by denial of service attacks three days a week, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday during working hours,” read the group’s latest statement.

Outages have been reported by customers of Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, PNC Bank, Union Bank and Wells Fargo, according to Site Down, a website that tracks reported online outages. However, no banks have reported experiencing any issues with their online services.

"At this point, we've had no issues on our end," Bank of America spokesman Mark T. Pipitone told Information Week Wednesday.

Unlike Anonymous, the Izz ad-Din Cyber Fighters seem to abide by strict, self-imposed regulations. During phase two of Operation Ababil, YouTube removed the original version of “Innocence of Muslims” from the site — as promised, the hacker collective ceased attacks once their demands were met.

But new copies of the video have reappeared on YouTube, and the Izz ad-Din Cyber Fighters say they will not tolerate more insults levied against Prophet Mohammed.

“Now at the end of one month time it is seen that other copies of the film yet exist in YouTube so we announce the Phase 3 of Operation Ababil will start this week,” read the group’s statement.

For phase three, Izz ad-Din is using a complex calculation to issue banks an exact dollar amount each will lose in the attacks. Using a combination of the video’s traffic statistics, Izz ad-Din determined that US Banks should pay $874.7 million in compensation.

A loss at that levels requires about 11 weeks of DDoS attacks.

Taking their name from a Syrian preacher that fought against French, British and Zionist elements in the Levant in the 1920s and 1930s, the collective has wrapped itself in the rhetoric of anti-imperialism....

A desperate fear and hatred of free discussion and free inquiry. "Islamic group promises to resume U.S. bank cyberattacks," by Antone Gonsalves for PC World, February 28 (thanks to Krazy Kafir):

An Islamic group that has claimed responsibility for several waves of attacks on major U.S. banks since last September has promised to resume its assault next week using a lot more firepower.

The group that calls itself the Cyber Fighters of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam claimed to have given a preview of what's to come in launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against the websites of a number of banks and credit unions on Monday. Targets included Bank of America, PNC Financial, Capital One Financial, Union Bank, Zions Bank, Citizens Bank, Peoples United Bank, Patelco Credit Union and University Federal Credit Union.

Which banks were struck and the extent of the disruption were not clear. However, Ronen Kenig, director of security solutions at Radware said Thursday at least seven banks suffered outages that lasted from a few minutes to several hours. He refused to name the banks.

Security researchers tend to take the group's pre-announcements of attacks on Pastebin seriously, because the attackers have generally followed through on their promises. Also, the method of attack has been consistent.

The group generally uses compromised servers in hosting companies that are often located in the United States, Kenig said. In the latest attacks, the servers were infected with a "shell booter," which essentially enables the attackers to flood a site with bogus traffic in order to overwhelm its servers.

Maximum traffic in the latest attacks reached more than 100 gigabits per second, far exceeding the maximum of 60 to 70Gbps in previous assaults, Kenig said. The reason the attackers have achieved such traffic levels is through the use of servers instead of compromised PCs, which have far less firepower.

The hosting companies whose servers have been compromised are legitimate businesses unaware of their complicity, Kenig said. Radware has been notifying the companies.
Lack of business cooperation helps attackers

Despite knowing about the attacks in advance, the banks and security vendors have failed to stop them not because of a lack of technology, but because of a lack of cooperation among all the affected parties, Kenig said.

"The entire security ecosystem still does not deal with these attacks as it should," Kenig said. Hampering efforts is a lack of information caused by the reluctance of banks and vendors to share data.

In 2012, Radware reported a 170% increase in DDoS attacks over the previous year, costing financial institutions $32,560 per minute of downtime. In addition, the length of time that an attack takes place has gone from hours to as long as a month.

The Cyber Fighters have claimed responsibility for five waves of attacks against banks that have occurred since last September. The last attacks occurred roughly a month ago.

Banks have sought help from the U.S. government in battling the assaults, which some defense officials have blamed on the Iranian government. Several affected banks, including PNC, SunTrust Banks and BB&T, have asked the government to stop or at least lessen the severity of the attacks.

Iran has denied any involvement. The Cyber Fighters claim the attacks will continue until YouTube removes an anti-Islam video that mocked the Prophet Muhammad. The video, called the Innocence of Muslims, sparked violent demonstrations last year in many Middle Eastern countries.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts, Robert McManus, is so avid for "dialogue" with Muslims that he barred me from speaking at an upcoming conference there, lest by telling unpleasant truths I hurt that "dialogue." Here, some self-described "Soldier off [sic] Allah" demonstrate their own understanding of "Catholic-Muslim dialogue": the Muslims talk, the Christians shut up and listen.

This hyper-PC CTV News story never mentions that the hackers identified themselves as "Muslims, Soldiers of Allah" (actually "Muslims, Soldier off Allah"), but they included a photo (above) that gave away their dhimmi obfuscation.

"Ottawa Catholic School Board hacked by anti-cupid," from CTV News, February 13 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):

A hacker took over the Ottawa Catholic School Board's website to rant about Valentine's day.

People visiting the Ottawa Catholic School Board's website, this morning, got an unromantic eyeful.

The website was hacked by someone using the name xCrotz.

The page shows a crossed-out Valentine’s gift and a rant against the romantic day.

The school board took down the website shortly after saying it was down for maintenance....

Censor yourself -- or else. Here's the latest in the Islamic war on free speech: "Protest group offended by YouTube video of Prophet Muhammad again targets PNC Bank," by Patricia Sabatini for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 11 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

A protest group that claimed responsibility for a wave of digital attacks on big U.S. banks in the fall -- including Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank -- apparently has PNC in its crosshairs again.

The al-Qassam Cyber Fighters said in an Internet posting that the group planned a second round of attacks this week on PNC and four other banks -- JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, U.S. Bank and SunTrust.

This afternoon, PNC started having problems with its website.

"Some PNC customers may be experiencing intermittent difficulty logging into PNC's website on the first attempt," spokeswoman Amy Vargo said in an email.

Pittsburgh's biggest bank was working to restore full access and "will be reviewing the cause of this incident," she said.

In September, PNC's online banking operations were disrupted for a couple of days by the so-called denial of service attacks, which flood websites with communications requests.

PNC "had the longest attack of all the banks," PNC chief executive officer James Rohr said in an interview with CNBC in October.

The hackers "just pummeled us," he said, adding that no customer data was compromised.

In the latest phase, "the wideness and the number of attacks will increase explicitly," the protest group said in a message posted on a website called Pastebin.

The group has said the attacks would continue until a YouTube video insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad was removed from the Internet.

Trying to strongarm the IAEA into acting against Israel's nuclear program, so as to render the Jewish State defenseless against a nuclear jihad from Iran.

"IAEA Incursion," by Adam Kredo in the Washington Free Beacon, December 3 (thanks to Steve):

An anti-Israel hacking collective has seized “highly sensitive” nuclear data and satellite imagery from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world’s top nuclear watchdog, according to the website Cryptome.

This is the second time in two weeks that the IAEA’s internal computer systems have been hacked by a group calling itself Parastoo, which is the Iranian word for a swallow (bird).

Parastoo stole the personal information of nearly 200 IAEA scientists and officials last week, including one employee in the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science. DOE is responsible for overseeing America’s nuclear arsenal.

Parastoo now claims to have pilfered reams of documents and personnel information from the nuclear watchdog’s internal “nuclear data section,” according to a statement by the group.

It also has obtained “highly sensitive information, Including Confidential ‘SafeGuard’ Documents, Satellite Images, Official letters, [and] Presentations,” according to the statement.

The hacker group has threatened to release this sensitive information unless the IAEA launches a formal investigation into Israel’s nuclear site, which some believe houses nuclear arms.

It is said that "You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time." But the Swedish establishment surely tries hard. Now they got caught. The new conservative newspaper Dispatch International is published in English, German, Danish and Swedish, and with Lars Hedegaard, Chairman of the International Free Speech Society, Islam and immigration will not be lied about. And that is what the Swedish unholy marriage of journalists and politicians fear.

From Dispatch International: Massive hacker attack against Dispatch International:

Dispatch International is under attack. During the last week we have been bombarded by attempts to overload the web site, rendering it inaccessible to our readers.

”This is no ordinary Denial of Service attack, that anybody can carry out. The people responsible know what they’re doing and have reasonably high skills,” says Dispatch International’s head of internet security.

A number of experts on IT security have gone through the logs from the 24 hour period when the attack was at its most intense, around November 22. And they have drawn several conclusions, of which the most interesting is that computers belonging to the newspapers Sydsvenskan, Värnamo Nyheter and Norrköpings Tidningar, the radio production company Tredje Statsmakten Media AB and Swedish state television SVT took part in the attack.

“Most of the computers used in the attack have random, dynamic IP addresses. So, these media houses certainly stand out,” says one of the security experts.

Even if there is no way to be sure that persons from these companies have participated actively in the attack, the experts believe is the most likely scenario.

”The alternative is that these major corporations have been hacked, and that would mean this is a very high profile attack. That is very is unlikely. An attack at that level could have wreaked complete havoc with the system, and that didn’t happen this time.”

By the skin of their teeth, Dispatch International’s security team managed to keep the web page online during most of the attack, but the publication of last week’s web paper was severely delayed. If one were to calculate how much money an attack like this is worth in overtime and damage to the paper’s reputation, one would end up with a six-figure amount. Dispatch International has of course reported the attack to the police, who are now investigating suspicions of hacking.

Treason. Or multiculturalism. "German Islamists Target Youth on the Internet," by Christoph Sydow for Spiegel, November 1 (thanks to Benedict):

A growing community of German-speaking Islamists has developed on the Internet. Aiming to find new recruits, they glorify jihad and call for attacks on Germany. A new study warns that such online propaganda might foster a new generation of terrorists. Info

As a rapper, Denis Cuspert was a bit player, but as a propagandist for jihad he is a star in some circles. He has gained considerable prominence since 2010, when he transformed himself from a Berlin hip-hop artist named Deso Dogg into the Islamist Abu Malik.

Actually, not much has changed since he became a Salafist. He still makes music, and distributes it primarily through the Internet. But instead of performing rap songs like "Gangxta" and "Ich und mein Baby" ("Me and My Baby"), he releases so-called Anasheed, or Islamic vocal music in which he glorifies jihad.

Cuspert's songs have attained cult status among radical Islamists in Germany. At the request of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Berlin, three of his jihadist songs were labeled as being harmful to minors in early 2012.

Today, the ex-rapper is one of the most prominent German-speaking propagandists for jihad on the Internet. A new study by the Berlin-based Foundation for Science and Politics (SWP), which advises the German government, addresses the development of the Islamist scene on the Internet in detail for the first time.

Sophisticated Websites

International terrorist groups like al-Qaida recognized the importance of the Internet for recruiting new supporters early on. But it wasn't until the end of 2005 that the German arm of the "Global Islamic Media Front" (GIMF), which saw itself as the mouthpiece for all jihadists worldwide, emerged.

The German offshoot of GIMF was founded by Mohamed Mahmoud, an Austrian with Egyptian roots. In addition to Cuspert, Mahmoud is still one of the most colorful figures in the German Islamist community. Mahmoud quickly attracted the attention of authorities when he began spreading al-Qaida propaganda on the Internet in 2005.

After GIMF posted a video in March 2007 threatening possible attacks in Germany and Austria, Mahmoud and his wife were arrested. Because he had used his own computer to place the video on the Internet, all Austrian authorities had to do was establish the connection between Mahmoud and the computer's IP address.

After his release in September of last year, Mahmoud quickly joined his new friend Cuspert in Berlin. Soon thereafter, the two men went to the western German city of Solingen, where Mahmoud transformed the Millatu Ibrahim Mosque into a nationally known meeting place for Salafists.

But the Internet remained far more important than the mosque. Mahmoud, Cuspert and their supporters have set up sophisticated websites. "Especially noteworthy are the high degree of technical professionalism and the targeted use of elements of current youth culture," the SWP study, published on Wednesday, concludes.

According to the study, shutting down the websites and arresting the people behind them will hardly curb the growing number of Salafists in Germany. On the contrary, Mahmoud only developed into "a star in the scene" as a result of having spent time in prison. After the federal government banned Mahmoud's Millatu Ibrahim group in June, its website was shut down, but new blogs and sites soon popped up to spread the same messages.

Mahmoud, Cuspert and their cohorts depend on these sites to stay in touch with their supporters in Germany. In the wake of the Millatu Ibrahim ban and growing police pressure on the Salafists following bloody clashes at a rally in Cologne, Mahmoud and Cuspert, together with many other key figures in the German Islamist community, have disappeared and have presumably fled to Egypt.

Cuspert made another Internet appearance in September, with threats of attacks in Germany. "You spend millions and billions for the war against Islam," he said in a video. "And that's why this country, the Federal Republic of Germany, is a war zone."...

And the BBC, ever fastidious about not calling attention to acts of Islamic supremacism and jihad, calls them "religious hackers." "France Euromillions site hit by religious hackers," from the BBC, October 28 (thanks to Alan of England):

The French site of the Euromillions lottery has been hacked, with the homepage replaced by a passage from the Koran condemning gambling.

The hackers, calling themselves "Moroccanghosts", posted the message in Arabic and French.

The Koranic verses call games of chance and alcohol "works of the devil" intended to turn people away from God.

The Francaise des Jeux (FDJ) company, which runs Euromillions in France, said its other games were not affected.

The message appeared on the site late on Sunday morning, according to French media reports....

Is Nathan Lean now working for Boko Haram? Lean, the editor-in-chief of Aslan Media, is a thug who has sent me numerous veiled threats. For security reasons, I maintain several offices and mailboxes in different parts of the country, and don't actually live near any of them or check the mail in them myself. Nathan Lean got hold of one of the addresses, and several months ago tweeted me, in a complete non-sequitur, the name of the state it is in. A week later, he sent me another tweet including the name of the city where one of these mailboxes is located. Four months after that, he sent me an email calling me a "dumb fuck" and adding "But, having a look at this, I kind of pity you," which was followed by a link containing a photo of a woman in the same city. The woman has the same surname as mine; apparently Lean thought she was my wife.

Now, the purpose of these tweets and emails is unmistakable: Nathan Lean was signaling to me that he thought he knew my whereabouts (and that of my family), despite my attempts to conceal them. And why would he want me to think that he knew where I was? So that I would be frightened into silence, afraid that one of his many violence-inclined allies might do me in if I continued to speak out for freedom and human rights. I therefore duly forwarded all these communications to the FBI, and they've informed me that they're keeping on eye on Nathan Lean.

"Nigeria secret police personal data leaked onto the Internet; Islamist sect makes threat," by Bashir Adigun and Jon Gambrell for The Associated Press, August 30 (thanks to Twostellas):

LAGOS, NIGERIA—Personnel records of former and current members of Nigeria’s top domestic spy agency, including home addresses and names of immediate family members, leaked onto the Internet in a threatening message that claimed to come from a radical Islamist sect that’s killed hundreds of people this year alone, The Associated Press has learned.

The leak of personal data of more than 60 past and current employees of Nigeria’s State Security Service remained easily accessible on the Internet for days and had details about the agency’s director-general, including his mobile phone number, bank account particulars and contact information for his son.

Many of agents listed who could be reached by the AP said they received no official warning from the spy agency that their information had been posted online nor been otherwise alerted.

The material has been deleted from the comment section of a website, but the security breach astonished veterans and calls into question whether Nigeria’s intelligence community, whose agents already have released suspected terrorists out of religious and ethnic sympathies, are too compromised from within to stop the violence now plaguing Africa’s most populous nation.

“This is a national embarrassment,” said one Nigerian intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as information about the leak was not to have been made public.....

Good. It is refreshing to see this kind of thing being done even in this Age of Obama. But who is leaking this information, and for what purpose? "U.S., Israel developed Flame computer virus to slow Iranian nuclear efforts, officials say," by Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Julie Tate for the Washington Post, June 19 (thanks to Benedict):

The United States and Israel jointly developed a sophisticated computer virus nicknamed Flame that collected intelligence in preparation for cyber-sabotage aimed at slowing Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials with knowledge of the effort.

The massive piece of malware secretly mapped and monitored Iran’s computer networks, sending back a steady stream of intelligence to prepare for a cyber­warfare campaign, according to the officials.

The effort, involving the National Security Agency, the CIA and Israel’s military, has included the use of destructive software such as the Stuxnet virus to cause malfunctions in Iran’s nuclear-enrichment equipment.

The emerging details about Flame provide new clues to what is thought to be the first sustained campaign of cyber-sabotage against an adversary of the United States.

“This is about preparing the battlefield for another type of covert action,” said one former high-ranking U.S. intelligence official, who added that Flame and Stuxnet were elements of a broader assault that continues today. “Cyber-collection against the Iranian program is way further down the road than this.”

Flame came to light last month after Iran detected a series of cyberattacks on its oil industry. The disruption was directed by Israel in a unilateral operation that apparently caught its American partners off guard, according to several U.S. and Western officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

There has been speculation that Washington had a role in developing Flame, but the collaboration on the virus between the United States and Israel has not been previously confirmed. Commercial security researchers reported last week that Flame contained some of the same code as Stuxnet. Experts described the overlap as DNA-like evidence that the two sets of malware were parallel projects run by the same entity....

SHAH ALAM: Enforcing laws to block filth on the Internet does not mean the Internet is being censored, said Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

“Cheating, gaming or gambling, pornography and child pornography and phishing are offences.

“To disregard this purely for freedom of the Internet is not right,” he said after opening the Selangor 1Malaysia Social Media Convention here yesterday.

He was responding to a suggestion by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that Malaysia should enforce some form of regulatory control to block filth and punish those who corrupt the minds of Internet users.

Dr Rais said he was happy to accept Dr Mahathir's view as the former premier had previously guaranteed freedom of the Internet.

Dr Rais said the Government is seeking to curb users from abusing the freedom of expression.

Allow me to rephrase the right honorable minister: the [Muslim] Government is seeking to curb users from abusing the freedom of expression, and to silence any and all voices of those critical of Islam.

"They've been doing it for the last 10 or so years, but they're really starting to flood the zone in recent years." "Political `hacktivists' attack city websites in North Miami, Hillsboro Beach," by Adam H. Beasley in the Miami Herald, January 19:

North Miami and Hillsboro Beach have had their official websites hacked into and derogatory messages posted on them -- setting off a scramble to shore up security and determine who's responsible.

Most days, North Miami's website is the place to go for the city's calendar of events, instructions on requesting a water bill and information on trash pickup.

But over the long holiday weekend, the municipality's official site provided a far more sinister -- and entirely unintended -- message.

Anti-Israeli hackers sidestepped ineffective firewalls and redirected visitors to a jarring note:

``God d*** Murderer Israel and ABD [an Arabic slur meaning subordinate]. I am protesting the israel.I am near the PALESTINE people.''

The note, which was later taken down, was signed SLYHACKER.

Thirty-five miles to the north, Hillsboro Beach officials had a similar headache Tuesday morning, as they were forced to scrub cyber graffiti from their own site.

A pro-Iranian hacker had inserted a map of the Middle Eastern nation and its flag, as well as three words in bold type: MCSM IRAN HACKING.

It's not clear if -- and given the vast number of Internet troublemakers around the globe, it's unlikely that -- the two incidents were at all connected.

But there's little doubt ``hacktivism,'' politically based cyber attacks by independent groups, are on the rise, and any city, town or borough with out-of-date security software is at risk.

``They've been doing it for the last 10 or so years, but they're really starting to flood the zone in recent years,'' said Alex Heid, a South Florida-based ``ethical hacker'' who provides cyber security best-practices to businesses and governments. ``There is a large hacking community in North Africa and the Middle East.

``For the most part, they're not really destructive or commit financial fraud,'' Heid added. ``They just look for ways to get their message out.''

And they look for easy targets. They found two in North Miami and Hillsboro Beach, which Heid said were open to mischief by even the most novice hacker.

For Hillsboro Beach, cleaning up its site was a daylong game of whack-a-mole. By early Tuesday afternoon, the flag was gone, but the website was defaced with writing in Arabic....

A freedom of speech issue? Really? "Anti-Semitic website back online: York U student on the run from Interpol," by Marten Youssef for The Canadian Press, December 21 (thanks to Abe):

VANCOUVER - An anti-Semitic Islamic website police say is operated by an Ontario student who is on the run is now back on the Internet after being shut down earlier this year by a Canadian web-hosting provider.

Salman An-Noor Hossain, 25, of Mississauga, operated a website called Filthy Jewish Terrorists and he and the site were the subject of a five-month investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police.

The site was shut down in March and Hossain was suspended from York University as the OPP investigated him.

But the anti-Semitic site has re-launched, using a host in Switzerland.

On Tuesday, Hossain posted a blog identifying himself as the operator of the re-launched site, and using the same design as the old one. The new web site is registered with generic information making it impossible to locate him.

Last July, the OPP said in a statement that Hossain "wilfully promoted hatred and advocated genocide of the Jewish community." His website called for direct terrorist attacks.

Hossain was charged with five counts under the seldom-used hate-crime section of the Criminal Code, but he didn't show up for his court date.

Last month, the Ontario Superior Court issued an international warrant for his arrest on Interpol. Hossain's picture, birth date, height, weight, colour of eyes and hair are listed on the international police web site.

"Every single Muslim in North America and Europe has a right to go and physically fight alongside the Islamic resistance groups in the various regions under external occupation (Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, Lebanon, Palestine, Somalia, and other places)," the website reads....

The Canadian Press reported Monday that an al Qaeda-linked website names more than 100 Arab Christians living in Canada.

The site apparently targets them, accusing them of playing a role in converting Muslims. The site, Shumuk Al Islam, includes pictures, names, addresses and cell phone numbers of Coptic Orthodox Egyptians mostly living in Eastern Canada....

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Tuesday the list of Canadian names is worrisome.

"It's very disconcerting that Canadians would be targeted in this way, but it simply illustrates the fact that Canadians are not immune from terrorism," Toews said.

"There is also a very fine line between what is freedom of speech and what is a criminal act. I think, in this kind of a situation, we are looking at criminal activity and criminal statements and all I can say is RCMP and CSIS are monitoring this very closely and working together with affected people."

Shumukh Al-Islam has also posted dozens of sensitive Canadian sites, such as nuclear facilities and dams, and noted them as potential targets....

Sounds like a criminal act to me, but hey, I'm no lawyer.

Of course, Osama probably wasn't operating it. But a clear jihad sympathizer was, and he attracted a large number of Islamic supremacist fans. "'Osama Bin Laden' Facebook Page Shut Down: Facebook Page in Terrorist's Name Drew Hundreds of Fans," by Lara Setrakian for ABC News, April 17 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A Facebook account in the name of Osama bin Laden was shut down Friday, after attracting more than 1,000 "fans" and posting the speeches and recordings of Islamic extremists produced by al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Sahab Media Group.

The page, which went up on March 25, referred to bin Laden as the "Prince of Mujahideen," and set his location to the "mountains of the world," according to the Arabic language news site Elaph. Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the mountainous area that stretches across Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It remains unclear whether the page was operated by close associates of bin Laden or by supporters based abroad. A Facebook spokesman cast doubt on a direct link.

"People often attempt to register fake accounts under the name of famous or infamous people," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said.

"There is no evidence to suggest that the account in question or the other dozens of people who have tried to present themselves as Osama bin Laden have any relation to the terrorist," he said. "As is our standard practice, we have disabled the account."

There continues to be a Facebook page for the Taliban, with a smaller following of 31 people and signs that the page itself is a prank.

Facebook has access to the email and IP address associated with a profile or group, and works with local and federal law enforcement in certain cases. Noyes declined to say if there would be any follow up on this case, or on the hundreds of followers who signed up as bin Laden's "fans."...

"Nobody dares to say, 'I follow your father' in public. But I find it very often and everywhere, people say, 'We like your father, your father is a hero,'" Omar bin Laden said....

But...but...everyone always tells us that Osama's followers are a Tiny Minority of Extremists™!

"Cyber-Rioting In France: 'We Aren't Going to Let Up! Are You Stupid?,'" from Der Spiegel, with thanks to Romy:

But just as the Internet has proven useful to those wanting to vent their frustration and anger at the violence enveloping France, others -- those involved in the violence -- have found the Internet a useful organizational tool. Plans for further attacks have made their appearances in different blogs -- like that from "Brahim." "Nice work people," he writes. "The cops are petrified of us, everything must burn, starting Monday, the operation 'Midnight Sun' starts, tell everyone else, rendezvous for Momo and Abdul in Zone 4 ... jihad Islamia Allah Akhbar."

User "Samir's" message is just as threatening. "You don't really think that we're going to stop now? Are you stupid? It will continue, non-stop. We aren't going to let up. The French won't do anything and soon, we will be in the majority here."

New law aims to clamp down on jihadist activity on the Internet. I'm all for that. But I wonder if politically correct myopia will lead to its being used to clamp down on anti-jihadists as well. From AFP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

PARIS - A new proposed anti-terror law in the US, presented on Wednesday, aims to clamp down on terrorist activity carried out via the Internet as the Al Qaeda network develops increasingly dangerous online activities.

The proposed law would introduce measures such as extending the period for which cybercafes have to keep records of Internet connection data, but faces a tough battle against “cyber-jihadists” who avoid being tracked through cunning and the fluid nature of the Internet, according to experts.

Terrorists use the Internet for “communication, recruitment, planning” and, importantly, for military instruction, said Rita Katz, head of the Washington-based institute Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE), which monitors Islamist websites.

“Everything is there, it replaces the training camps,” she said.

One method attributed to the suspected head of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, is the “dead letter box” system: someone creates an email account, gives the password to several members of a group and communicates by saving messages in a draft messages folder without sending them.

Communication by this method cannot be monitored because government systems for tracking emails work only if someone sends an email, said Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore.

“It was used by Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, who was the mastermind of 9/11, to communicate with the global network,” Gunaratna said.

The people behind some sites promoting terrorism “are more savvy than a lot of us normal typical internet users,”, said Rebecca Givner-Forbes, an intelligence analyst who monitors the Internet for the Terrorism Research Centre, a company employed by the US government.

“They often use Japanese and Chinese upload web pages because they don’t ask for an email address or any information from the person uploading a file,” she said. “They’ve become very savvy about how they evade detection on the Web.”

And what is the message the portly cleric wishes to convey? Why the glorification and urging of jihad, of course. From the Times Online:

THE exiled radical Islamist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammad is continuing to reach his followers in Britain through websites and internet chatrooms. After a period of silence that came after Bakri Mohammad’s decision to leave Britain for Lebanon to avoid the threat of arrest and deportation, his followers have re-emerged online.

They have been detected using a chatroom labelled “Muslims in the UK” to deliver lectures that deliberately challenge proposals in the Terrorism Bill to outlaw the glorification of terrorist acts.

The nature of the material suggests that Bakri Mohammad’s movement is prepared to be more explicit in its preachings and teachings.

In one session a man calling himself Mizaan, who spoke with an English accent, said: “We should all of us glorify terrorism and we should incite religious hatred.

“Don’t worry, it’s not illegal for us to say that the Mujahidin on 9/11 were the magnificent 19, and it’s not illegal for us to say that Mohammad Sidique Khan (July 7 ringleader) and the four on 7/7, that they were the fantastic four.”

Speaking animatedly, Mizaan stated that the world was divided into two camps — Islam and kuffar — which would always be at war. He repeatedly urged his listeners to take part in that war.

He said that he was in contact with Bakri Mohammad. but it was not possible to determine from where in the world the lecture was being broadcast.

The chatroom appeared on the Paltalk internet network which is run by a New York-based company. In January The Times revealed that Bakri Mohammad used the same network to declare Britain a “land of war” and encourage his followers to join al-Qaeda.

"To qualify for any of the jobs, a person has to be someone who 'seeks the guidance of God.'" In a larger sense this is actually nothing new. "Al-Qa'ida Recruits Through the Internet," from The Media Line, with thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater:

Al-Qa'ida has recently begun to recruit members to the organization through the Internet, reports the London-based daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat. Among the posts needed to be filled, are: an editor for Jihadist announcements in Iraq – both in audio and in video; an editor for TV video clips published through satellite stations; and an editor for written announcements in Arabic and English.

The wanted ads can be found on a website affiliated with Al-Qa'ida. The site said its public relations division will e-mail those who would like to apply for the jobs once they make the initial connection.

Al-Qa'ida did not specify what the salaries would be. It did state, however, that "Each Muslim has to know that he does not possess his time. His time belongs to the raped [Islamic] nation, whose blood was spilled without revenge."

To qualify for any of the jobs, a person has to be someone who "seeks the guidance of God."

Via computer virus operating as morality police. "Arabic Trojan butts into porn surfing: Yusufali-A interrupts adult websites with messages from the Koran," from ITNews, with thanks to Graeme:

Security experts today issued a warning after detecting a malicious Trojan horse which tries to interrupt the surfing of adult websites by displaying messages from the Koran.

The Yusufali-A Trojan monitors users' surfing habits by examining the title bar of the active window.

If the Trojan finds a key word such as 'teen', 'xx', 'sex' or 'penis', it minimises the window so that the user cannot see its content and displays a message from the Koran instead.

The message, which is partly written in Arabic, contains the following English text: "Yusufali: Know, therefore, that there is no god but Allah, and ask forgiveness for they fault, and for the men and women who believe: for Allah knows how ye move about and how ye dwell in your homes."

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said: "Unlike other malware, it appears that this Trojan isn't trying to steal money or confidential information, but acts as a moral guardian instead, blocking the viewing of websites it determines as unsavoury.