Hacker Attack Allegedly Cripples Al-Qaida Web Communications

Via MSNBC.com -

Computer hackers shut down al-Qaida's ability to communicate its messages to the world through the Internet, interrupting the group's flow of videos and communiqués, according to a terrorism expert.

Al-Qaida's online communications have been temporarily crippled, and it does not have a single trusted distribution channel available on the Internet," said Evan Kohlmann, of Flashpoint Global Partners, which monitors the group's communications.

The attack was carried out within the past few days by unknown hackers targeting al-Qaida's Internet communications systems. It was "well coordinated and involved the use of an unusual cocktail of relatively sophisticated techniques," Kohlmann said.

"My guess is that it will take them at least several days more to repair the damage and get their network up and functioning again," he said.

A year ago, al-Qaida's Internet communications suffered a similar hacker attack.

[...]

Kohlmann said the latest incident "once again appears to bear the telltale fingerprints of government-sponsored hackers."

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Here are several of Evan's previous tweets outlining the allegedly attacks...

http://twitter.com/#!/IntelTweet/status/85468524537057280

Hackers have hijacked the primary web domain used by the top-tier "Shamukh" chat forum, which disseminates propaganda on behalf of Al-Qaida.
27 Jun

http://twitter.com/#!/IntelTweet/status/85488197286637568

The ongoing hacking attack on the top-tier "Shamukh" jihadi web forum has dramatically escalated, with the entire website now unavailable.
27 Jun

http://twitter.com/#!/IntelTweet/status/86132506423853056

Even with the return of Atahadi and Ansar al-Muj, the ongoing jihadi web blackout is by now the most significant such event since June '10.
29 Jun

http://twitter.com/#!/IntelTweet/status/86133041696751616

At the present time, Al-Qaida has been left without a trusted operational channel on the Internet for distributing its media and propaganda.
29 Jun