April 4, 2007:
There's an ongoing debate among
counter-terrorism experts over whether the Islamic terrorist Internet
infrastructure should be attacked. It's no secret that the terrorists use the
Internet for recruiting and fundraising. That alone makes those sites a
legitimate target. But there are problems. For one thing, the intel people
believe these jihadi sites are a good source of information. And then there are
the lawyers. These websites are hosted in server computers located in a number
of countries, some of which take a dim view of anyone attacking their servers,
for any reason. Internet experts also point out that, as quickly as you take
down a jihadi site, it can be revived somewhere else. This can happen in
seconds, although hours or days is more common.
The war on terrorism does not have a nation as the
enemy, but a non-state, international organization. Members don't wear
uniforms, and even teach that one should deny membership if caught. This
secrecy is understandable, and it extends to the use of the Internet. For the
intel people, the most valuable terrorist Internet locations are kept secret.
If you take down the public web sites, either via a court order or a hacker
attack, it will take a while for its users to find the new location. So the
attacks on Jihadi sites do have an impact. Secret locations can be zapped and
there will be little, or no, public acknowledgement, but you may have to mess
with an innocent server, in another country, in order to do it.
While government and military organizations have
been quiet about questionable hacker attacks on jihadi sites, there are
civilian individuals and groups making vigilante attacks on terrorist Internet
facilities already. Officially, no one condones this, unofficially, many
counter-terrorism operatives approve of it, and may even be slipping the
vigilantes useful information on potential targets.
The problem with the vigilantes is that many types
of attacks involve collateral damage, and violating the laws of foreign
countries. Potentially a very sticky business. But, then, counter-terrorism in
general is a pretty sticky business. The Internet portion of the war on terror
will likely remain in the shadows.
