December 02, 2009

MEMRI: Shutting Down Cyber Jihad Really Not All that Hard

A new report by MEMRI boils down the cyber jihad to five major sites. Shut these guys down and you've effectively killed the head of the beast. These are the five sites used by the actual terrorists to communicate with their cyber fans.

MEMRI:

Currently, fewer than five forums are used by jihad media companies as a direct channel for disseminating their products (e.g., jihad films, texts, and audios). Moreover, only half a dozen Islamist forums attract multi-participant discussion among jihadists and jihad sympathizers worldwide. Most jihad cyber domains initiate very little, if any, original discussion, primarily reposting material from popular jihad forums. Hence, disabling the few prominent domains could seriously cripple Islamists' ability to conduct mass online discussions, and could also hamper the rapid spread of jihad material in cyberspace. [1]

The most popular Salafi-jihadi forums are Al-Faluja, Shabakat Ansar Al-Mujahideen, Shabakat Al-Tahadi Al-Islamiyya, Shumukh Al-Islam, Shabakat Hanein, Shabakat Al-Mujahideen Al-Electroniyya, Mutadayat Al-Boraq Al-Islamiyya, and Ma'arik Islamic Network. Of these forums and websites, five are hosted by Western hosting companies.

Two things to note. First, of the five forums let me give a shout out to the akhi at Hanein and Ansar. You know who you are.

Second, we love MEMRI, so we'll overlook the fact that they get a few details wrong. Like, that RIPE is not a host. As our own Black Flag put this in an email:

"RIPE" does not host web sites, from the RIPE homepage:
"The RIPE NCC is one of five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) providing Internet resource allocations, registration services and co-ordination activities that support the operation of the Internet globally"

In short, RIPE provides blocks of IP addresses to other organizations. IAISITE.Net for example is not hosted by RIPE, it's hosted in a datacenter in Turkey.

Note to MEMRI: Use a better Whois search next time. I like SamSpade, but even that isn't foolproof.

As a parting thought let me note that I said in the headline that shutting down the cyber jihad really isn't all that difficult. It isn't. However, there may be valuable information at forums like these. Intel and law enforcement would do well to weigh the pros and cons of shutting down Islamist forums.

Just thought I'd end this post by sowing a little fear and discord among the ranks of the enemies

Thanks to Jane.

By Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at 09:08 AM | |