The terrorist attacks in Paris have prompted hacktivists involved with Anonymous to promise their “biggest operation ever.”
Individuals claiming to be connected to the hacker collective released a video following Friday’s events warning the Islamic State group that “Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down.”
“Expect massive cyberattacks. War is declared. Get prepared,” the hacktivists said, according to an English translation.
The original French-language YouTube video has been viewed nearly a million times since it was uploaded on Friday, and Twitter users with ties to Anonymous have amplified their call-for-arms across social media using the hashtags #OpISIS and #OpParis.
“The purpose of this Op is to identify and report supporters of the atrocious November 13th 2015 Paris attacks in an effort to assist finding those responsible, demonstrating that we do not tolerate such atrocities and gather information that could help prevent further attacks in the future,” the hacktivists wrote in a widely-shared statement circulated over the weekend.
The Islamic State has taken credit for a series of coordinated blasts and shootings that took place in the French capital on Friday and claimed more than 130 lives.
Anonymous earlier this year targeted the social media accounts and websites of Islamic extremists following an assault on the Paris office of satirical paper Charlie Hebdo; more recently, the collective set its sight on the Ku Klux Klan and released a list of hundreds of names and details alleged to pertain to klansmen across the country.
The loose-knit hacker group got its start nearly a decade ago, and individuals accused of waging cyberattacks under the Anonymous banner have been blamed by U.S. prosecutors for assaults on government and corporate targets the world over.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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