The loose-knit international hacking group Anonymous has declared war on the Islamic State group in response to the terror attacks in Paris that killed 129 people on Friday.
In a video posted on YouTube on Saturday, a man wearing the group's signature Guy Fawkes mask warned the Islamic State group that "war is declared" and to expect "major cyberattacks."
"These attacks cannot remain unpunished," the unidentified man said, speaking in French, according to NBC News. "We are going to launch the biggest operation ever against you. Expect many cyberattacks. War has been declared. Get ready. We don't forgive and we don't forget."
The Islamic State group on Saturday claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks. A manhunt has begun to find others who may have assisted the terrorists, most of whom were killed in the attacks, which targeted bars, restaurants, a concert hall and soccer stadium. A Belgian national living in Syria has been identified as the possible mastermind, according to Reuters.
The Anonymous spokesman continued: "Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down. Yes, you, the vermin who kill innocent victims, we will hunt you down like we did to those who carried out the attacks on Charlie Hebdo. You should know that we will find you and we will not let you go." The video has garnered over 1.6 million views since its release Saturday.
Anonymous made similar threats against Islamic extremists following the January attacks on the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, saying it was "declaring war" against "al Qaeda, Islamic State and other terrorists," according to Fox News.
The group went on to launch a number of denial-of-service attacks against Islamic State group websites, overloading the sites with fake traffic in order to disable them. Anonymous also took credit for identifying more than 39,000 Twitter accounts suspected to be associated with the Islamic State group, 25,000 of which the group says were suspended, while 14,000 more are still active, according to Reuters.
Anonymous previously gained support for targeting the Church of Scientology and the Westboro Baptist Church, however, some of that support faded after it incorrectly identified the shooter of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The group has also been criticized for failing to control its members, as well as possibly interfering with formal state-sponsored intelligence operations, according to The Hill.
"The motivation of Anonymous as a whole really is to get attention," Matt Harrigan, president and CEO of cyber threat detection firm PacketSled, who monitors the hacking group, told The Hill. "It's a PR machine for causes that somebody inside Anonymous has decided are important."
Make no mistake: #Anonymous is at war with #Daesh. We won't stop opposing #IslamicState. We're also better hackers. #OpISIS
— Anonymous (@GroupAnon) November 15, 2015
#opisis root as many daesh sites as possible, be quiet, make a copy of the database, be quiet, pass root logins to DoD, be quiet.
— Anonymous (@Anonycast) November 16, 2015
