Image via Jihadology.net

In response to the recent Paris attacks which killed over 150 civilians, Anonymous has "declared war" on ISIS. As part of this campaign by the decentralized and largely undefined hacking group, Anonymous claims to have taken down the main messaging forum used by ISIS, with more offensives to come.

But ISIS, not content with taking this declaration of war lying down, has hit back in a statement released by its official Khilafah News channel - part of the propaganda arm of ISIS, dubbed the al-Hayat Media Center.

In this statement to ISIS members, the terror group called Anonymous "idiots" for its declaration of war. Despite this, ISIS - which relies heavily on digital communications for propaganda and coordination purposes - also issued a poorly-worded bulletin, reminding its members to exercise proper digital security:

Do not open any kind of link unless u r sure from the source Use vpn and change ur IP constantly for security reasons. Phones and computers. Do not talk to people u don’t know on Telegram and block them if u have to cause they are many glitches in Telegram and they can hack you by it. Don’t talk to people on Twitter DM cause they can hack u too. Do not make your #email same as your #username on twitter this mistake cost many Ansar they account and the kuffar published their IP so be careful.

While these recommendations should serve as self-evident security guidelines for everyone on the internet, ISIS has taken careful consideration in ensuring digital security to protect its operations. Most recently, messaging app Telegram shut down 78 channels it says were used for coordination among ISIS members.

The aforementioned guidelines posted by ISIS are very similar to a recent alert sent out to government officials and law enforcement officers by the FBI, who warned that certain high-profile officials could also be the target of hacking groups online.

Source: The Independent