Emergent Warfighting in the Physical and Digital Realms: “Swarming”

I recently mused on the preponderance of articles on the Ansar boards concerning insects. The postings all centred on Bee’s Ants, and other insects that, as it was pointed out to me later, “swarm” It was after this epiphany, that the person who reminded me of this fact, sent me a link to a pdf file written by the military back in 2000 and updated in 2005. This document produced by the RAND Corporation has hit the mark today especially for me post the Wikileaks DDoS and I should think that others have picked up on this, namely, the Jihadists.

Al Qaeda,” or “the Base,” as Osama bin Laden’s terror network is known, may be trying
to engage in “strategic swarming”—an effort to strike simultaneously, or with close
sequencing, at widely separated targets (e.g., the embassy bombings in Kenya and
Tanzania). But, so far, his ability to mount operations of strategic significance seems lim-
ited. Also, to the extent to which the Base’s operations depend upon bin Laden’s direct
leadership, this is a case that differs from the “leaderless” quality of classic swarm theory.

The Jihadists have learned from this swarming pattern to actually create an infrastructure of communications (their websites and boards) that are not solely housed on any one server, but instead, many servers that can be used as a backup when one fails. This has made it harder for sites to be taken down just as much as the nature of the Internet itself has made it difficult to put a halt to these sites being stood up quickly and easily missed by authorities. By extension though, the jihadi’s have also begun I think, to make the connection between swarming tactics, guerrilla warfare, and the position they find themselves in today being shunted into certain areas of the Asiatic.

What has come of this is that AQ, GIMF, AQAP, AL Shabab, and others are branding their propaganda wings, creating a virtual infrastructure for recruitment, and attempting to create “hives” of malcontent’s that will swarm when the signal is given. What’s worse, is that I fear the Jihadists will learn from our pals at Anonymous and perhaps use the technologies at hand (LOIC and an IRC server) to attempt a combined attack of digital and kinetic that could be problematic for us all. Which brings me to the digital realm…

What the DDoS is at its heart is in fact a “swarming” maneuver for the digital age. With the prevalence of inter networked technologies that we have become inextricably connected to, a swarm attack could potentially kill a non resilient network infrastructure and render the country inert in many ways. This has been proved out with the cyber attacks on Georgia by Russia in tandem with the kinetic attacks of bombing and other internal guerrilla warfare that was carried out there. The Rand report does a great job at not only describing the physical swarm used in warfare to date, but also goes on to cover the nascent internet (its writing was in 2000 but citing 1994 documentation)

Swarming has two fundamental requirements.

First, to be able to strike at an adversary
from multiple directions, there must be large numbers of small units of maneuver that
are tightly internetted—i.e., that can communicate and coordinate with each other at
will, and are expected to do so.

The second requirement is that the “swarm force” must
not only engage in strike operations, but also form part of a “sensory organization,” pro-
viding the surveillance and synoptic-level observations necessary to the creation and
maintenance of “topsight.”

Thus, swarming relies upon what Libicki (1994) calls “the
many and the small,” as well as upon Gelernter’s (1991) notion of a command element
that “knows” a great deal but intervenes only sparingly, when necessary. These two fun-
damental requirements may necessitate creating new systems for command, control,
communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I).

Clearly, digital communications enable the rise of swarm networks. They provide for
smooth cascades of information and for the level of information security that will be
needed in an increasingly dispersed, nonlinear battlespace of the future. The conse-
quence of poor information security will be high for a swarm force if it becomes com-
promised—but then the cost of intercepted and decoded communications has always
been high. In 207 B.C., during the later years of the Second Punic War, a Carthaginian
messenger was caught by the Romans, leading to the deadly ambush of Hasdrubal’s
army at the Metaurus—and to the overall defeat of Carthage (Creasy, 1851, pp. 84–110).
Two millennia later, at the Battle of Tannenberg in the opening month of World War I,
German radio intercepts of Russian field movements allowed an outnumbered force
under Hindenburg to win a signal victory that tipped the scales much in Germany’s
favor.

Robust communications that help with both the structuring and processing of informa-
tion will enable most pods and clusters to engage the enemy most of the time—a key
aspect of swarming. If this can be done consistently, it holds out the possibility of creat-
ing a new kind of force-multiplying effect, whereby a skillful blending of the technologi-
cal and organizational aspects of information operations can enable a relatively small
force to outperform an ostensibly larger one.

There you have it, they called this back in 2000, of course there had been DoS attacks already, in fact one of them was actually named operation SWARM. So the precedent and the idea had already been in use and thought about. My question is why then, with all of the knowledge about how this works, NOTHING really has been substantively done about creating meshed networks that could withstand and respond to a SWARM/DDoS attack? Even if the heart of the problems today may lay at the application layer, what else could be done aside from load balancing that would re-mediate this attack?

In the last few days all I have been seeing on the blogs and RSS feeds are predictions for the 2011 threatscape. Of course DDoS is right at the top of that list now because of Anonymous and others who have been using this attack schema for their own purposes. Anonymous though, at the level of theory and practice, truly has been a “swarm” attacker. They have used innumerable personal machines through a C&C infrastructure that can in fact be anywhere. All you need to do it put out the word (IP address/channel) and anyone who wants to can just give cycles to the cause. Of course this is proving to be a little problematic as the FBI is seizing servers already from the DDoS campaigns against Mastercard and other vendors.

Done right though, with no skiddie technology, but instead with proxies, and protections for the end users (John Q. Public) then it would be much harder to catch anyone after the fact as well as if you handled it deftly, you could in fact create a mesh network that could hand off the traffic should there be a counter attack against the aggressors. Similarly, if those being attacked had a resilient network (dare I say cloud computing.. alas.. I did..) then it is possible to absorb the traffic, or deflect it so as to not have a situation where the systems are down because of a single node of failure, so to speak.

In conclusion, I think that this paper is very important to not only the military, but also the security and networking industry itself. Think not only about the potential for DDoS attacks, but also picture the next gen of “Stuxnet” with not only the features of PLC injection, but also botnet/p2p capabilities (it had p2p of a sort built in already) that could infect machines with multiple 0day, lay in wait until the “swarm” order is given. This could be the largest swarm attack yet.

Interesting times….

CoB

I recently mused on the preponderance of articles on the Ansar boards concerning insects. The postings all centred on Bee’s Ants, and other insects that, as it was pointed out to me later, “swarm” It was after this epiphany, that the person who reminded me of this fact, sent me a link to a pdf file written by the military back in 2000 and updated in 2005. This document produced by the RAND Corporation has hit the mark today especially for me post the Wikileaks DDoS and I should think that others have picked up on this, namely, the Jihadists.Al Qaeda,” or “the Base,” as Osama bin Laden’s terror network is known, may be trying
to engage in “strategic swarming”—an effort to strike simultaneously, or with close
sequencing, at widely separated targets (e.g., the embassy bombings in Kenya and
Tanzania). But, so far, his ability to mount operations of strategic significance seems lim-
ited. Also, to the extent to which the Base’s operations depend upon bin Laden’s direct
leadership, this is a case that differs from the “leaderless” quality of classic swarm theory.The Jihadists have learned from this swarming pattern to actually create an infrastructure of communications (their websites and boards) that are not solely housed on any one server, but instead, many servers that can be used as a backup when one fails. This has made it harder for sites to be taken down just as much as the natrue of the internet itself has made it difficult to put a halt to these sites being stood up quickly and easily missed by authorities. By extension though, the jihadi’s have also begun I think, to make the connection between swarming tactics, geurilla warfare, and the position they find themselves in today being shunted into certain areas of the Asiatics. 

What has come of this is that AQ, GIMF, AQAP, AL Shabab, and others are branding their propaganda wings, creating a virural infrastructure for recruitment, and attempting to create “hives” of malcontents that will swarm when the signal is given. Whats worse, is that I fear the Jihadists will learn from our pals at Anonymous and perhaps use the technologies at hand (LOIC and an IRC server) to attempt a combined attack of digital and kinetic that could be problematic for us all. Which brings me to the digital realm…

What the DDoS is at its heart is in fact a “swarming” maneuver for the digital age. With the prevalence of inter networked technologies that we have become inextricably connected to, a swarm attack could potentially kill a non resilient network infrastructure and render the country inert in many ways. This has been proved out with the cyber attacks on Georgia by Russia in tandem with the kinetic attacks of bombing and other internal guerrilla warfare that was carried out there. The Rand report does a great job at not only describing the physical swarm used in warfare to date, but also goes on to cover the nascent internet (its writing was in 2000 but citing 1994 documentation)

Swarming has two fundamental requirements.

First, to be able to strike at an adversary
from multiple directions, there must be large numbers of small units of maneuver that
are tightly internetted—i.e., that can communicate and coordinate with each other at
will, and are expected to do so.

The second requirement is that the “swarm force” must
not only engage in strike operations, but also form part of a “sensory organization,” pro-
viding the surveillance and synoptic-level observations necessary to the creation and
maintenance of “topsight.”

Thus, swarming relies upon what Libicki (1994) calls “the
many and the small,” as well as upon Gelernter’s (1991) notion of a command element
that “knows” a great deal but intervenes only sparingly, when necessary. These two fun-
damental requirements may necessitate creating new systems for command, control,
communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I).

Clearly, digital communications enable the rise of swarm networks. They provide for
smooth cascades of information and for the level of information security that will be
needed in an increasingly dispersed, nonlinear battlespace of the future. The conse-
quence of poor information security will be high for a swarm force if it becomes com-
promised—but then the cost of intercepted and decoded communications has always
been high. In 207 B.C., during the later years of the Second Punic War, a Carthaginian
messenger was caught by the Romans, leading to the deadly ambush of Hasdrubal’s
army at the Metaurus—and to the overall defeat of Carthage (Creasy, 1851, pp. 84–110).
Two millennia later, at the Battle of Tannenberg in the opening month of World War I,
German radio intercepts of Russian field movements allowed an outnumbered force
under Hindenburg to win a signal victory that tipped the scales much in Germany’s
favor.

Robust communications that help with both the structuring and processing of informa-
tion will enable most pods and clusters to engage the enemy most of the time—a key
aspect of swarming. If this can be done consistently, it holds out the possibility of creat-
ing a new kind of force-multiplying effect, whereby a skillful blending of the technologi-
cal and organizational aspects of information operations can enable a relatively small
force to outperform an ostensibly larger one.

There you have it, they called this back in 2000, of course there had been DoS attacks already, in fact one of them was actually named operation SWARM. So the precedent and the idea had already been in use and thought about. My question is why then, with all of the knowledge about how this works, NOTHING really has been substantively done about creating meshed networks that could withstand and respond to a SWARM/DDoS attack? Even if the heart of the problems today may lay at the application layer, what else could be done aside from load balancing that would remediate this attack?

Jihadi Malware 2010, Al Mojahden’s User Acct Boo Boo, & The Jihadi Technical Forums

TNT_ON TNT_ON

تاريخ الإنتساب: Jul 2010 Registration Date: Jul 2010 المشاركات: 266 Posts: 266

جـــمــيــــــع بــرامــــج الاخــــتـــراق بــكامــــــل الاصــــــدارات لعـــام 2010 All malware full versions of the 2010

---

It seems that the 2010 year has been a banner one for TNT_ON and his pals with regard to malware for them to use in their online jihad. Of course many of these programs (mostly RAT’s) have been around for some time so they aren’t 0day material. I should think that many of these tools would be detected easily by someone competent with an operating system, but I suspect the people they are using these tools on are not so much up on the technology.

..:: جميــــــع برامــــج الاخــــتراق بكامــــــل الاصـــدارات للعام 2010 ::.. ..:: All programs full versions Breakthrough of the Year 2010:: ..

CyberGate:

CyberGate v1.00.0 CyberGate v1.00.0

CyberGate v1.00.1 CyberGate v1.00.1

CyberGate v1.01.7 CyberGate v1.01.7

CyberGate v1.01.8 CyberGate v1.01.8

CyberGate v1.02.0 CyberGate v1.02.0

CyberGate v1.03.0 CyberGate v1.03.0

Cybergate v1.03.0 (-_€hårly±X Version_-) Cracked Cybergate v1.03.0 (-_ € hårly ± X Version_-) Cracked

CyberGate v1.04.8 CyberGate v1.04.8

CyberGate v1.05.1 Cracked by h3llb0y CyberGate v1.05.1 Cracked by h3llb0y

Cybergate v1.05.1 Cybergate v1.05.1

Cybergate v1.05.1 Private Cracked Cybergate v1.05.1 Private Cracked

CyberGate v1.07.0 private Cracked CyberGate v1.07.0 private Cracked

CyberGate v1.07.5 CyberGate v1.07.5

Spy-NeT : Spy-NeT:

Spy-Net v0.7 Spy-Net v0.7

Spy-Net v0.8 Spy-Net v0.8

Spy-Net v0.9.2 Spy-Net v0.9.2

Spy-Net v1.0 Spy-Net v1.0

Spy-Net v1.7 Spy-Net v1.7

Spy-Net v1.8 Spy-Net v1.8

Spy-Net v2.0.1 Spy-Net v2.0.1

Spy-Net v2.0.4 Spy-Net v2.0.4

Spy-Net v2.1 Spy-Net v2.1

Spy-Net v2.3 Spy-Net v2.3

Spy-Net v2.5 Spy-Net v2.5

Spy-Net v2.6 Spy-Net v2.6

Spy-Net v2.7 Beta 2 Spy-Net v2.7 Beta 2

Spy-Net 2.7 Final Spy-Net 2.7 Final

DarKCoMeT : DarKCoMeT:
DarkComet 2.0 Beta 2 DarkComet 2.0 Beta 2

DarkComet 2.0 Beta 3 DarkComet 2.0 Beta 3

DarkComet 2.0 Beta 6 DarkComet 2.0 Beta 6

DarkComet 2.0 Final DarkComet 2.0 Final

DarkComet 2.0 Final RC1 DarkComet 2.0 Final RC1

DarkComet 2.0 Final RC2 DarkComet 2.0 Final RC2

DarkComet 2.0 Final RC4 DarkComet 2.0 Final RC4

DarkComet 2.0 Final RC5 DarkComet 2.0 Final RC5

DarkComet 2.0 Final RC6 DarkComet 2.0 Final RC6

DarkComet 2.0 Final RC6 [Bugfix] DarkComet 2.0 Final RC6 [Bugfix]

DarkComet 2.0 Final RC7 DarkComet 2.0 Final RC7

DarkComet 2.0 Ultimate DarkComet 2.0 Ultimate

SchwarZe SoNNe : SchwarZe SoNNe:

Schwarze Sonne 0.1 Beta Schwarze Sonne 0.1 Beta

Schwarze Sonne 0.1 Beta 2 Schwarze Sonne 0.1 Beta 2

Schwarze Sonne 0.1 Final Schwarze Sonne 0.1 Final

Schwarze Sonne 0.2 Beta Schwarze Sonne 0.2 Beta

Schwarze Sonne 0.2 Final Schwarze Sonne 0.2 Final

Schwarze Sonne 0.3 Beta Schwarze Sonne 0.3 Beta

Schwarze Sonne 0.4 Final [Bugfix] Schwarze Sonne 0.4 Final [Bugfix]

Schwarze Sonne 0.5 Beta Schwarze Sonne 0.5 Beta

Schwarze Sonne 0.5 Final Schwarze Sonne 0.5 Final

Schwarze Sonne 0.6 Beta Schwarze Sonne 0.6 Beta

Schwarze Sonne 0.6 Final [Bugfix] Schwarze Sonne 0.6 Final [Bugfix]

Schwarze Sonne 0. 7 Schwarze Sonne 0. the 7th

Schwarze Sonne 0.8 Schwarze Sonne 0.8

Schwarze Sonne 0.8.1 [Bugfix] Schwarze Sonne 0.8.1 [Bugfix]

Schwarze Sonne 0.9 Schwarze Sonne 0.9

Schwarze Sonne 1.0 Schwarze Sonne 1.0

LosT DooR : LosT DooR:

Lost Door v2.2 Stable Public edition Lost Door v2.2 Stable Public edition

Lost Door v3.0 Beta Lost Door v3.0 Beta

Lost Door v3.1 Silver Edition Lost Door v3.1 Silver Edition

LostDoor v4.0 Pro LostDoor v4.0 Pro

Lost Door v4.2.2.rar Lost Door v4.2.2.rar

Lost Door v4.3.1.rar Lost Door v4.3.1.rar

DeePeR RaT : DeePeR RaT:

Deeper 1.0 Beta 1[runtime error fixed] Deeper 1.0 Beta 1 [runtime error fixed]

Deeper 1.0 Beta 3 Deeper 1.0 Beta 3

Deeper 1.0 Beta 4 Deeper 1.0 Beta 4

Deeper 1.0 Beta 5 Deeper 1.0 Beta 5

Deeper 1.0 Beta 8 Deeper 1.0 Beta 8

Deeper 1.0 Beta 9 Deeper 1.0 Beta 9

Deeper 1.0 Beta 10 – Fix1 Deeper 1.0 Beta 10 – Fix1

Deeper v1.0 Deeper v1.0

PoiSon Ivy : PoiSon Ivy:
Poisen Ivy v2.0.0 Poisen Ivy v2.0.0

Poisen Ivy v2.1.0 Poisen Ivy v2.1.0

Poisen Ivy v2.1.1 Poisen Ivy v2.1.1

Poisen Ivy v2.1.2 Poisen Ivy v2.1.2

Poisen Ivy v2.1.4 Private Poisen Ivy v2.1.4 Private

Poisen Ivy v2.2.0 Poisen Ivy v2.2.0

Poisen Ivy v2.3.0 Poisen Ivy v2.3.0

Poisen Ivy v2.3.1 Poisen Ivy v2.3.1

Poison Ivy 2.3.2 Poison Ivy 2.3.2

BiFrosT : BiFrosT:

Bifrost v1.0 Bifrost v1.0

Bifrost v1.1 Bifrost v1.1

Bifrost v1.1.01 Bifrost v1.1.01

Bifrost v1.2 Bifrost v1.2

Bifrost v1.2.1 Espanol Bifrost v1.2.1 Espanol

Bifrost v1.2 b Private Bifrost v1.2 b Private

Bifrost v1.2.1 c Private Bifrost v1.2.1 c Private

Bifrost v1.2.1 d Bifrost v1.2.1 d

CyBerEye : CyBerEye:

CyberEye v0.9 CyberEye v0.9

CyberEye v1.0 CyberEye v1.0

CyberEye v1.1 CyberEye v1.1

CyberEye v1.2 CyberEye v1.2

BLaCkShaDes : BLaCkShaDes:

Blackshades NET v2.4.0 Blackshades NET v2.4.0

Blackshades NET v2.4.1 Blackshades NET v2.4.1

Blackshades NET v2.5.0 Blackshades NET v2.5.0

Blackshades NET v2.6.1 Blackshades NET v2.6.1

Blackshades NET v2.6.2 Blackshades NET v2.6.2

Blackshades NET v2.6.3 Blackshades NET v2.6.3

BlackShades NET v3.0 BlackShades NET v3.0

BlackShades NET v3.0.1 BlackShades NET v3.0.1

BlackShades NET v3.0.2 BlackShades NET v3.0.2

BlackShades NET v3.1 BlackShades NET v3.1

برامج اخرى Other programs

ProRat_v1.9 SE ProRat_v1.9 SE

sharK_3 sharK_3

SharpEye-Rat1-0_beta2 SharpEye-Rat1-0_beta2

solitude_1.0_cracked_by_DizzY_D solitude_1.0_cracked_by_DizzY_D

StreamRAT v2.0 StreamRAT v2.0

Sub7 v2.1.5 aka Sub7Legends Sub7 v2.1.5 aka Sub7Legends

SubSeven_2.3 SubSeven_2.3

Synrat v4.0 Synrat v4.0

Synrat v4.3.1 Synrat v4.3.1

theef_210 theef_210

Turkojan4 Turkojan4

Vanguard Vanguard

Venomous Ivy Venomous Ivy

VorteX RAT VorteX RAT

Y3kRat2k5RC10 Y3kRat2k5RC10

Yuri_V12 Yuri_V12

xHacker v3 xHacker v3

Xtreme RAT v1.0 (spynet based Xtreme RAT v1.0 (spynet based

Daleth RAT 1.0(ss rat src) Daleth RAT 1.0 (ss rat src)

DarkMoon v4.11 DarkMoon v4.11

DRAT 2009 V4.0 Build 1201 DRAT 2009 V4.0 Build 1201

DRAT 2009 V4.2 Build 1216 DRAT 2009 V4.2 Build 1216

Erebus v1.0.2 Private Cracked By Hacking Legends Erebus v1.0.2 Private Cracked By Hacking Legends

Erebus v1.02 full Erebus v1.02 full

Golden Phoenix Rat 0.2 Golden Phoenix Rat 0.2

GraphicBooting RAT Beta v0.3 GraphicBooting RAT Beta v0.3

m0sck3r m0sck3r

MiniMo v0.7a PublicBeta MiniMo v0.7a PublicBeta

miniRAT 0.6 Beta miniRAT 0.6 Beta

MofoTro MofoTro

NetDevil_v1.5 NetDevil_v1.5

NovaLite_final5 NovaLite_final5

Nuclear 2.1.0 Nuclear 2.1.0

Omerta13 Omerta13

Optix v1.33 Optix v1.33

Pocket RAT Pocket RAT

Cammy v1.9.0.1 Cammy v1.9.0.1

Cerberus RAT 1.01 Beta Cerberus RAT 1.01 Beta

Cerberus RAT 1.03.4 Beta Cerberus RAT 1.03.4 Beta

CFRATBETA CFRATBETA

Char0n Char0n

CIA v1.3 CIA v1.3

A32s (fifth) RAT A32s (fifth) RAT

Agent HS-32idir RAT Agent HS-32idir RAT

Apocalypse v1.4.3 final Apocalypse v1.4.3 final

Apocalypse v1.4.4 Apocalypse v1.4.4

Arabian-Attacker v1.2.2 Arabian-Attacker v1.2.2

Arabian-Attacker v1.4.0 Arabian-Attacker v1.4.0

Archelaus Beta Archelaus Beta

Archelaus v2 (cleaned by Adz0rd) Archelaus v2 (cleaned by Adz0rd)

Arctic RAT 0.0.1 Alpha Arctic RAT 0.0.1 Alpha

Arctic RAT 0.1 Arctic RAT 0.1

Bandook v1.35 Bandook v1.35

انتهى أي استفسار نحن في الخدمة We ended any inquiry in the service
تحياتي للجميع Greetings to all
اخوكم Brother

TNT_ON TNT_ON
شبكة المجاهدين اللإلكترونية Alliketronip Mujahideen Network

A-Mojahden though has bolstered its hacking and technical section with a new guy named “Jew Fighter” being very busy in adding posts on all manner of technical aspects to hacking and protecting their data from being hacked. There is even a whole manual on how to set up a php board securely and monitor it.. I guess they have learned that their sloppy admin in the past only served to get them popped! Most of the articles though, are the kind of thing that Ligatt would steal from others and post on his own site, so nothing really cutting edge going on here. They are learning though, and they have laid down the law about hacking and protecting their data in the following section

“Guidance department and the laws of penetration”

In other news, it seems that the admins are still dealing with fallout from a compromise that they had. I am seeing traffic that says they have dumped a HUGE number of members and are looking for those who want to sign back up, to do so, and their accounts will be granted by elders, so to speak, who will approve or deny them. From all of this though, I am seeing clues that they are setting up their own repository on the server for uploading programs, pdf’s etc. This would be an interesting development because if they do, it could be a trove of information that someone could get hold of should it be compromised (hint hint) One of the posts even talks about the importance of getting software that they know is good as opposed to stuff with a backdoor already in it.

Interesting reading.. Albeit semantically hard when translating Arabic via Google.

CoB

The GIMF Telethon: AQ’s New Fund Drive

The Global Islamic Media Front

General Command

A Message to Those Who Spend in Allah’s Cause

“Wage Jihad against the idolators with your wealth, your lives, and your words.” (Ahmed, Abu Dawud) The influence Jihadi media has had on the enemy and their agents in this vicious attack on Islam and Muslims is now clear to all, due to the efforts made in exposing the lies and plans of the enemies. Due to this, they now lay in wait of the Jihadi media with various plots and plans, gathering all their weapons in order to combat it. They have gathered huge amounts of money, as well as media and technical experts along with the latest technology to combat a foe small in number with limited resources, who rely only upon themselves after Allah for funding. However, all their efforts to have been rendered fruitless, despite the total cooperation give to them by the intelligence agencies all over the world, Arab and non-Arab. Allah foiled their plans in totality. And why not, when the basis of their work was Allah’s saying:

ادْعُ إِلِى سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ وَالْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ وَجَادِلْهُم بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَن ضَلَّ عَن سَبِيلِهِ وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِالْمُهْتَدِينَ

“Invite to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.” (An-Nahl: 125) One of the first priorities of the Jihadi media was to expose the lies of the enemy, as well as to encourage the Muslim Ummah to rise and fulfill the forgotten obligation required by the most vicious Christian Crusade against Islam. Another priority was to ******** Jihadi operations, as we saw that many those which took place in the past, such as in Bosnia, Chechnya, the Afghan Jihad against the Soviets, the Christian slaughter of the Muslims in Indonesia and the events of East Turkistan, were buried and never to be seen, as Jihadi Media as we understand today was close to non-existent. Due to this fact, many enemy crimes remained hidden, as were the victories and heroic deeds of the Mujahideen. The Global Islamic Media front was one of the vanguards of the media centers which took to this responsibility, working to defend and support Islam in general and the Mujahideen in the various battlefields in specific after America and its allies declared their war against the Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq. Thus, the enemy started to plot against us in hopes of ending this defense and support which was built upon the wails of prisoners and martyrs, in pursuit, while individuals who do not have even the provisions of one day dedicated almost all their time to join the ranks of the Mujahideen against the most vicious Christian crusade history has witnessed. On this occasion, we would like to request our Muslim brothers all over the world to financially support the advancement of Jihadi media as required by the coming times, which will be no less than previous times. We remind the Muslim masses and the Jihadi supporters in specific that if they were unable to participate in Jihad physically, they still have wealth in their position. If they were not able to send money to the battlefields, that there are still families of the martyrs, prisoners or migrants in Allah’s Path. We remind them of this great obligation which Allah has placed over them, in His saying:

انْفِرُوا خِفَافاً وَثِقَالاً وَجَاهِدُوا بِأَمْوَالِكُمْ وَأَنْفُسِكُمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ذَلِكُمْ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ

The rest can be found HERE use TOR if you want to see it.

So, it would seem that GIMF has just stopped short of having a “Jerry Lewis” style telethon to raise funds for Jihad here. This is the first full media call that I have seen and it is somewhat distressing from the standpoint that with more funding, they will be able to funnel more money to operations as well as parcel it out to those “lone wolf” cells that they have been trying to create. Of course, some might say that this appeal by GIMF may show the movements iminent implosion because it is now out and out putting its hand out for funds.

To the point though, even with all the frilly Allah citations and round about visuals of shahid, what they are looking for is money to fund more propaganda and actual terror operations. The other thing that is interesting here is the second part below:

In conclusion, we remind our brothers of the following:

1) All correspondence must be private which will be mentioned here. No questions will be allowed to be posted here.

2) Use all security measures when corresponding.

3) Correspondence will be through the following user name:

“ الجبهة الإعلامية – مكتب العلاقات”

…on Al-Shumookh forums, links as follows:

https://www.shamikh1.net/vb/private.php?do=newpm&u=11033
http://www.shamikh1.net/vb/private.php?do=newpm&u=11033
https://202.149.72.130/~shamikh/vb/private.php?do=newpm&u=11033
http://202.149.72.130/~shamikh/vb/private.php?do=newpm&u=11033

Those who are not members can correspond by sending a message from the following link:

http://gimfmail.blogspot.com

The following is the public key on Al-Asrar pogram for dedicated to this matter. You can download it on the following links:

http://mir.cr/0XYWCK9G
http://www.multiupload.com/TPZQXB9LMZ
http://www.rapidspread.com/file.jsp?id=pd9aay0tgi
http://www.filezzz.com/173696/KEY.rar.html

They have set up a conduit on blogspot as well as the private chat area of shamikh to set up funds transfer and to foment correspondences. All of these are also mandated to be encrypted with the “asrar al-moujahideen” application that they have out there. It’s a kindd of cheap PGP knock off and they offer their public key for anyone who wants to talk. I have worked with asrar before and it’s not so secure that it hasn’t been broken already so I should think that others have been perhaps intercepting such communications at the source of the blogspot servers themselves.

Still, this is an interesting development. I wonder just how much of this is going to be Hawala though. This particular post was in the English language section of the site, so I am guessing that their target audience is the jihobyists and wannabe’s here in the US and other areas. Perhaps this is also mirrored in the other language sections too.

All in all, this sounds rather desperate.

Emerson Begolly; Teen Nazi Whacknut Turned Mujahid Takfiri Asadullah Alshishani

I got a tip on this guy and decided to do a little digging… Boy, what a whackjob. Lets call this kid a “jihobbyist” that seems in need of some counselling and a big scrip for some Clonozepam. Overall though, this kid seems to be just a hanger on who wants to belong to something that will fulfill his desires for warfare, power, and a sense of “brotherhood” Which I guess he did not get fulfilled from the 4rth Reich that he was emulating when he wore the Nazi uniform.

Oh Look, the young Nazi.. I mean Shahidi has an Iron Cross!

Now, you might be asking yourself “gee what did this kid do?” Well, so far he has just been an advocate posting online at places like Ansar1, hanein, and alboraq under the name Asadullah Alshishani. His “greatest hits” so to speak are “Nasheeds” for the fallen brave mujahids as well as penning and singing a song for Osama himself. Seriously dude, you suck as a lyricist, time to get into another line of work. Of course, you are studying comparative religion at Penn State so perhaps you are a method actor and are just trying to live the part? Either way, there is no future in this line of work my boy, best you shave the beardlet and grow up.

I am not sure how long Emerson wore the mantle of Nazi but he now looks rather different in his late teens/early twenties sporting the new chic “Chechen” Jihadist look:

Thats it.. Pose for the camera with Ansar on the screen! That’s a keeper.

Say kid, I think you are more prone to end up in a baza bachi party with that weak beard rather than at a training camp. You will get all the “special” attention because of your blue eyes… Oh well, someday you will be an adult, likely in the prison population here in the US, and likely not too far from your home;

Emerson W. Begolly

1419 PACIFIC AVENUE
NATRONA HEIGHTS, PA 15065

Or, maybe you will want to  be closer to your family in Mayport near Dad?

Shawn A Begolly

DOB: Jul 13th, 1960
AGE: 50 years old
RELATIVES:
Tiffani Dawn Roof
Joan A Kowalski
Shea Begolly
Emerson W Begolly

194 Sugar Valley Rd
Mayport, PA 16240
(814) 365-2301

Anywho… I broke out the Maltego and did some looking into you old boy. Seems that you have been around a while posting your nasheeds, but really not doing much else it would seem. Of course the boys at My Pet Jawa took you to task too haven’t they? I mean the goatse references and pictures on your website were pretty nasty. Then again, there is the profile opened up for you on a homosexual pron site too that is, well kids, just don’t go there unless you want a shock and ESPECIALLY not if you are at work! So, it may make sense that you have kept a kind of low profile online… Well except for the Myspace site, which may or may not have been set up by you.

Alternately, you are living quite in the open there sparky with your shit hanging out on the Penn State site and what is with the whacky bead pictures man? I mean, are you some sort of crazy bead guy now? Is it a sideline? Because really, I think that should be your main line of work and not so much the lyrics and singing thing. You will definitely make more money with the beads AND it will keep you ever so busy in prison later on! You can make all kinds of beaded products for the guys there who will be trading you around for smokes. Maybe they will even be kind and use some lube on you if you make them shiny beaded baubles.

But I digress…

The Maltego maps show some interesting connections and emails. Perhaps there is more to plumb later on, but for now I got quite a bit of data just by looking you up in Google.

I’m tellin you dude, your OPSEC is a FAIL.

Do yourself a favor, cut the shit out, shave, and lose the beanie. Your Nazi/Mujahid days are over.

CoB

Muhammad Zaib Khan: Mujahideen-e-Islam Media Center

The Mujahideen Media Centre is a fairly under the radar site that is run by someone calling themselves Muhammad Zaib Khan. He helpfully has offered up his gmail account on the main page of the site zaibkhanmujahid@gmail.com and he claims connections to the Pakistani movement that created Faisal Shahzad. After doing some looking around, I decided to pull out the Maltego and have a little looksee at his personae.

What the maltego tells me is that perhaps this is a young man:

Roll#: 0206605, MUHAMMAD ZAIB KHAN son/daughter of MUHAMMAD SALEEM, date of birth 25.12.1992, and resident of district TOBA TEK SINGH (district of domicile) has obtained 590 marks in Entrance Test (Entry Test; MCAT) out of 1100 and 931 in FSc/Equivalence marks by IBCC out of 1100, with Aggregate of 75.3364%. His/her Provisional Merit Position is 06969. Link

He has also set up a scribd site where he has a book that he has uploaded:

Now, on the cover of the book you have this phone number.. I assume the publishers Phone: 92-041-618003 Inside though, this says it was scanned and uploaded by Mr. Khan and has another email address for him: zaibkhan52@yahoo.com which links to a Youtube account for Mr. Khan with nasheeds and other propaganda. I have yet to download the document and look at the metadata, but soon hope to and will edit this post once I have.

Also located with another yahoo account mzaibkhan@yahoo.com a hit comes up at a taxi website:

Could they indeed be the same person? How common is the name Muhammad Zaib Khan in Karachi anyway? In any case, the Pakistan connections are there as this guy claims to be aligned with the Taliban forces/tribes in Pakistan…

Hmmmm….

A Google search of his name turns up numerous hits for Youtube (his channel) etc as well as posts to other Islamic Jihad sites (links) As well, his site is a Blogspot site which is run by Google as well… One wonders if anyone has paid any attention to Mr. Khan before? I looked into him before but got waylaid with other things and am now just circling back. However, the BEST link that I got from Maltego would be for a Fawad Khalil, who’s resume is located HERE He speaks English, Urdu, and Pashto (all languages used and linked to on the Media Centre site) and gives his cell number, home number, and another email address of fawad_khalil1@yahoo.com Once this was plugged into the Maltego, it came up with a hit to a personals site which says he is 22 and in Upper Dir, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan… How is it a hit? Because he says his father is Muhammad Zaib Khan

Could be…. After all, a computer guy with a website on Islamic Jihad from the Frontier region of Pakistan? How about yes.. I should think that is pretty close to where the Talibs are hanging these days eh?

I guess I will just have to give up what I have and see if anyone is interested in looking at those email addresses, phone numbers, and other data.

CoB

#LIGATT #FAIL #TheEnd

The New Witch Trials: Pakistani Sentenced to Death May Get a Pardon

From the NY Times by Jane Perlez

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A Christian woman who was sentenced to death by a municipal court for blasphemy against Islam could be pardoned by the president in the next few days, a senior government official said Monday.

Asia Bibi, 45, an agricultural worker and mother of five, is the first woman to be sentenced to death for blasphemy, according to human rights groups.

The governor of Punjab Province, Salmaan Taseer, where Ms. Bibi has been in jail for more than a year, said he had forwarded a petition presenting the facts of the case to President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday.

Mr. Taseer, a political ally of Mr. Zardari, said he believed that Ms. Bibi had been unfairly treated since she was arrested last year. “I hope the president will pardon Asia in a day or two,” Mr. Taseer said.

The case against Ms. Bibi began in the fields of Ittan Wali, a village 60 miles west of Lahore, when agricultural workers picking berries with her protested that she had been asked by a landlord to fetch water for them to drink.

The other workers declined to touch the water bowl because Ms. Bibi had carried the container, according to accounts by her husband, Ashiq Masih, and others.

“Suddenly she saw men and women walking towards her with angry gestures,” Mr. Masih, a laborer, said in a telephone interview.

“They started beating her and shouting that she had made derogatory remarks against the Prophet Muhammad,” he said.

A mob dragged Ms. Bibi to a local police station, where she was jailed and charged with blasphemy, Mr. Masih said. “My wife has not done anything,” he said.

Announcing the guilty verdict this month, Judge Naveed Iqbal ruled in a Punjab municipal court that Ms. Bibi had not been wrongly accused, saying that “the chances of false implication of the accused are totally ruled out.”

The rest HERE

Sound familiar? Other than the usual crazy grasp of reality and clan wars between tribes and religions can you see the same pattern that we in the US grew out of back in the day? Yeah, they might as well as called her “WITCH” and began chanting “BURN HER!” As it is, there are groups of men outside the prison chanting about killing Asia Bibi as well as demanding her beheading. What’s worse is that like the witch trials of the 17th century in Mass, these accusations of about 100+ people in Pakistan on blasphemy also take the shape of a means to get rid of people one does not like.

Sure.. it’s all about Allah and Mohammad… Riiiggghhht and I am the king of Siam.

Is it not bad enough that we have the Taliban and other fundamentalists re-animating the ghost of the Crusades without this crap too? How are we to work with these people if this is how their world view works in a digital and global age? I mean, shit, not even the Prime Directive would be held to, to use a pithy Star Trek reference here.

Bill Maher is right.. religion must go.

Oh and btw.. These fuckwits have NUCLEAR WEAPONS! So all of you out there pissy about any machinations revealed by Wikileaks on Pakistan think about this story and the fact that this country and its people have the bomb.

CoB

Escalation: Jester —> Anonymous —-> Gnosis —-> Ra’s al Ghul’s League of Assassins?

Jim Gordon: What about escalation?
Batman: Escalation?
Jim Gordon: We start carrying semi automatics, they buy automatics, we start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor piercing rounds, and *you’re* wearing a mask and jumping off rooftops. take this guy: armed robbery, double homicide. Got a taste for the theatrical, like you. Leaves a calling card.
Jim Gordon: [Gordon presents Batman with a clear plastic evidence bag containing what appears to be a single playing card; Batman turns it over to reveal a “Joker”]
Batman: I’ll look into it.

It feels more and more every day lately, like we are all trapped in a Batman graphic novel with all of these Hero’s and Villains coming out of the digital woodwork. First there was Jester (digital vigilante for “good” press) Then came Anonymous.. Well, Anonymous was around before Jester, so.. Ok first there was Anonymous and then came Jester and now as of this weekend we have “Gnosis” The hacker cabal that took down gawker.com because they were too flip about “Anonymous” and Operation Payback.

It seems to me that an escalation is happening here. Now that Assange has opened the pandora’s box and become the zeitgeist for all the skiddies, we will have many more groups pop up to perform the latest mayhem that they feel they need to in order to advance their cause célèbre. So what’s next? I wonder if the more technical folks of Gnosis will then turn their attentions to something like a real news org that they feel is not reporting objectively *cough FOX cough* Or maybe they will take on a blogger for being a douche?

With each and every attack that is perpetrated without fear of punishment, I predict more people will take to the digital highway with their 2.0 version of LOIC (with proxy support) and begin to rain anarchist packet storms on us all. In cyberspace no one can hear the scream of sanity…

CoB

Wikileaks and The Importance of Intelligence Analysis

WikiLeaks cables: Russia ‘was tracking killers of Alexander Litvinenko but UK warned it off’

Claim that British intelligence was incompetent will deepen diplomatic row sparked by move to deport MP’s Russian researcher

From the Guardian

Russia was tracking the assassins of dissident spy Alexander Litvinenkobefore he was poisoned but was warned off by Britain, which said the situation was “under control”, according to claims made in a leaked US diplomatic cable.

The secret memo, recording a 2006 meeting between an ex-CIA bureau chief and a former KGB officer, is set to reignite the diplomatic row surrounding Litvinenko’s unsolved murder that year, which many espionage experts have linked directly to the Kremlin.

The latest WikiLeaks release comes after relations between Moscow and London soured as a result of Britain’s decision to expel a Russian parliamentary researcher suspected of being a spy.

The memo, written by staff at the US embassy in Paris, records “an amicable 7 December dinner meeting with ambassador-at-large Henry Crumpton [and] Russian special presidential representative Anatoliy Safonov”, two weeks after Litvinenko’s death from polonium poisoning had triggered an international hunt for his killers.

During the dinner, Crumpton, who ran the CIA’s Afghanistan operations before becoming the US ambassador for counter-terrorism, and Safonov, an ex-KGB colonel-general, discussed ways the two countries could work together to tackle terrorism. The memo records that “Safonov opened the meeting by expressing his appreciation for US/Russian co-operative efforts thus far. He cited the recent events in London – specifically the murder of a former Russian spy by exposure to radioactive agents – as evidence of how great the threat remained and how much more there was to do on the co-operative front.”

The memo contains an observation from US embassy officials that Safonov’s comments suggested Russia “was not involved in the killing, although Safonov did not offer any further explanation”.

The rest HERE:

With all of the raw data dumps from Wikileaks and the furor surrounding them in the press around the globe something important has been rarely pointed out. The important point is this: All intelligence, even observations in state cables like the ones Wikileaks is putting out there, need to be read by individuals trained to “analyze” what is said. This is often performed by any of the intelligence organs of the state and likely did get done when these were secret. Now of course, they are off of the reservation and in the open for everyone to read and make poor conclusions on.

In the above cable release we have what seems to be data that says our man in the UK Crumpton, met with and believed that the Russians had nothing to do with the murder of Alex Litvinenko. In fact, the information says that MI5 fucked the pooch and told the Russians to back off because they had it all in hand. While this may sound reasonable to some, it is of course not so much the assessment I would make after reading this cable, I mean, look at the source. A “former” KGB operations man is telling the Ambassador that the Russians had nothing to do with the killing of an ex KGB agent who poked his finger in the eye of not only the KGB, but also Putin? You mean to say that “nothing” is going to happen to someone who does that and then defects to the West?

Yeah… Right…

Taken at face value, this cable may read to many out there as others did Litvinenko in and the Russians (who are always open and honest with us) had in no way anything to do with it either state sponsored or even Russian Mob related. In short, Pooty Poot was a huggy bear and we, the US and Russia were the best of friends. Perhaps though, it was just the stance at the time to blindly accept such data as the straight dope (Bush Era cooperation with Russia in the War on Terror) Or, perhaps the ambassador just put what “could” be said in this cable and then made a full and frank report in a more secure fashion back to Langley (which is what I lean toward)

Here’s the analysis as I see it from this cable:

1) The US and Russia were on better terms by 01 with Bush looking into Putin’s soul via his eyes. Why rock the boat here huh?

2) The turf of MI5 has been the equivalent of the “Year of the Spy” (1985) It has not been so active of a playing field since the cold war.

3) Politically, this was a hot potato. If the US pushed the issue and sided with Britain, it would cause more friction that the US did not want. This kind of killing had not been seen in the UK since 1978 and the Markov Affair.

The summary analysis per this cable: “There are doubts that the Russians did this, lets not push it” and if you remember now, the US did nothing really to push on the Litvinenko affair. There was no stern call out nor any back room dealing to get anyone on UK soil that they really wanted to talk to (Lugovoi) So, it went the way of the cold case really. Litvinenko’s wife is still trying to get the truth out but no one seems really interested in poking the “bear” to get the truth to be told.

So, the net result of this cable’s release? Well, I am sure that many people will read it and not be able to analyze it properly to see the truth of the matter. The same should be said about all of the cables being released by Wikileaks, an alleged news organization that fails to provide any context on the “reporting” they claim to be doing. Without analysis, you really don’t get the whole picture.

CoB

 

#LIGATT ROUNDUP

Well kids, it’s time for uncle “doe” 21 to give the “LIGATT Roundup” Whew! It’s been a whirlwind week so far of Ligatt and Evans stupidity. Where to start….

First we have the “I am a RACIST HACKER” T-shirt put up on the hackergearonline.com

This is an obvious attempt on the part of Gregory and Ligatt to slander Chris John Reilly and is really quite pathetic. The T-shirt is up for purchase, that is, until you go to cash out and it crashes out. What can one say? Perhaps it is intentionally set to crash.. Maybe it’s just the usual piss poor coding on the part of Ligatt and Evans on his multitudinous useless sites on the Internet.

Gee Greg, frustrated a little? Which leads me to the next debacle of the week!

Then there’s the sock puppet show that Cymone Coker and LIGATT carried out on Ophelia, in which our plucky sock puppet and No. 1 Haxx0r tried to accuse her of being “Racist” in commentary on her blog. The Tech Herald, caught on to the sock puppetry after they ran an article on how Ligatt seems to be trying to leverage the “race card” by selling this obviously racist t-shirt all the while crying foul that people are “hating on him”

The post, about the Ligatt vulnerability scanning tool on their site, showed how the scans actually do not really test for vulnerabilities and the net effect is that they are useless in protecting anyone while giving the false illusion that you are “ok” In the comments field the following showed up:

The IP address that this comment was made from came from the same area that all of the others on various blogs had come from when the Ligatt sock puppet patrol was in full force… Atlanta. What the sock puppets failed to see is that Ophelia is not only a woman, but also a “brown” one as she put it. So, she doubly knows about whats out there regarding racism and sexism. She quickly pointed this out and that in fact she was not hating on him because he is a black man, but instead he is a “charlatan” and makes the information security business look bad with his antics.

Then we have the smoking gun pop up.

The Tech Herald, after running a piece on not only the racist T-shirt debacle AND the run in with Ophelia, got an email from Cymone Coker, as mentioned above. The email was an attempt to squelch any racism claims and to say that this was not the intent. After all, they had shirts saying that Russians make the best hackers! (ugh) What Cymone failed to understand was this: She emailed directly from her outlook session from the SAME IP address as the comment on Ophelias blog post. (see here)

DOH!

Yeah, what a security company they are when they can’t even hide their IP when they are performing “Racist Sock Puppet Theater”

All in all, once again Greg and Ligatt have just shown themselves for what they are and its rather plainly evident wouldn’t you say?

But wait! There’s more!

Coming in last night, we have the new revelation of a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) that was filed against Greg by a Nathanael Rockett citing “Family Violence” as the cause of the order. A little digging produced an interesting background on Mr. Rockett. Seems to have an interesting criminal history as well as the addresses match up.

The question though for me is.. Just how is Evans “family” ?? It would seem that perhaps Evans and Nathanael knew each other from Californa?

Meh.

The data alone is interesting… AND to see that Greg is getting physical and has a TRO on him is fun. Greg, it seems that perhaps all of the pressure you are under lately has you frustrated huh?

A little edgy?

Heh.

Well, at the very least Greg, you have QUITE the month of court dates!

The house of cards is imploding Greg.

CoB