Security expert Robert Siciliano explains how the hacktivist collective Anonymous targets Turkey, claiming the government harbors terrorists. Anonymous uses what Siciliano calls "vengeful tactics" to disrupt what they see as injustice, raising questions about Turkey's role as a NATO ally in the war on terror.
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Also following another development here, you've obviously heard of this Anonymous group. Some call them— they're— that they're hacktivists. They will target, let's say, ISIS directly and try to mess with their computers and all, but they will also go after presumably the good guys, the Turks for example. That's depending on your perspective, if you believe the Turks are the good guys, but they've been hacking them as well. So I'm not sure whose side they're on, they just seem to mess up all sides. Online security expert Robert Siciliano and what he makes of Anonymous and what it's up to as a group. What do you think?
Well, certainly, uh, a collective, uh, of hacktivists that seem to have time on their hands for, uh, vengeful tactics such as this. They said a while back that they were going to take revenge on ISIS, try to disrupt them, and it seems that this is an attempt to do just that by going after the government of Turkey.
All right, but They seem to be indiscriminate about this. You know the group better than I, but they like to mess up everyone's lives. Is that basically right?
Well, they generally take upon some form of a cause, someone that they feel or some entity that they feel is unjust, and they seek justice. At least that's generally what the consensus is. You know, hacktivism is activism, and whether you agree or not, generally their modus operandi is to disrupt and often, you know, to make a right— make a wrong right.
Now, what they seem to be saying in the case of the Turks, you, the United States and Western powers and fellow NATO members, might see Turkey as a friend. We do not. Now, of course, they're not the first to say that. Well, there have been many in Washington been very leery of Turkey and how eager a participant is in this war on terror, more specifically taking out ISIS. So do they sometimes bring that to the fore and say, look, your friend is not your friend. Is that what they're up to?
They seem to believe that in some way, shape, or form that Turkey is harboring terrorists, that in some way they are fostering ISIS in some way, harboring them, protecting them in some way, and that what they're doing is unjust and that they're bringing attention to it.
All right, thank you very much, Robert. I appreciate it. Robert Siciliano.
