Anonymous campaign against ISIS backfires
Anonymous should stick to what it is good at: its attempt at crowd-sourcing anti-ISIS investigators has quickly become a joke. As we reported earlier this week, the hacktivist group has declared war against ISIS, saying that it has exposed tens of thousands of ISIS propaganda sites on Twitter and elsewhere on the web. So far the campaign has probably hindered the security services more than ISIS; one Anonymous warning of a potential ISIS threat at a WWE wrestling event in Atlanta resulted in the FBI stating clearly that they did not even deem the information to be credible. 
 

Anonymous Discloses Possible ISIS Threat Against WWE Event

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reportedly taking the threat seriously.

Update, Nov. 21, 2:45 PM





Georgia Emergency Management Agency/Homeland Security public affairs director Catherine Howden responded to Maxim with an e-mailed statement regarding threats to the WWE event in Atlanta:

GEMA/HS has been in communication with the FBI and our state and local partners.

At this time we refer you to the following statement from J. Britt Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta Field Office:

“The FBI is aware of reports of an alleged threat that includes an Atlanta, Georgia venue and event. While we take all threats seriously, we do not have specific or credible information of an attack at this time. We have, however, made the proper notifications as we continue to work closely with our law enforcement and private sector partners to keep our community safe.”

YourAnonNews, the Twitter account most associated with Anonymous ops, also disavowed the rumors in a tweet:

We did not spread any rumors about possible future ISIS attacks, and frankly, we do not know where the rumors come from. — Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) November 21, 2015

Original post: Hacker collective Anonymous’s all-out online assault against ISIS—or Daesh—may have born tangible rotten fruit in the form of warnings about threats against various events worldwide posted Friday. As reported early Saturday by The International Business Times (IBTimes), an individual or group using the screen name AnonOpParis published a chilling statement on plain text depository Pastebin.com. The statement requested broad dissemination and claimed to expose possible ISIS threats against events to be held November 22nd in Rome, Indonesia, Milan—a concert given by Vegas heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch—and the United States. Specifically mentioned in the US: WWE’s Survivor Series, which takes place in Atlanta. The authorities have been alerted:

All proof was submitted to official authorities all around the globe days ago. They have it and it is their responsibility to do something with it. But because they have not done anything with it yet and it’s almost the 22nd, we have matters into our hands. We only take the responsibility of warning civilians (in case the authorities do not act well enough).

Civil and federal authorities in at least one region have decided to take the threat seriously. Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) director Jim Butterworth gave a statement to Atlanta ABC affliate WSB, which said in part that GEMA “is working closely with the FBI, the Georgia information sharing and analysis center and others in evaluating the threat on a Sunday WWE event in Atlanta reported by the group Anonymous.”

The WWE issued a statement regarding the threat as well, in which they said “Survivor Series is currently scheduled as planned while we investigate the matter with federal, state and local authorities.”

IBTimes stated that they’d spoken with Anonymous, and the collective said it had given its proof of the threats “to the MI5 intelligence agency in the U.K., the CIA and FBI in the U.S., and the Australian government but that it has no plans to release the proof publicly.” Anonymous said a public release might undercut the veracity of the claim, since “screenshots can be edited and accounts can be deleted.”

In a separate release, the OpParisIntelTeam stated that their goal “is to make sure the whole world, or at least the people going to these events, know that there have been threats and that there is possibility of an attack to happen. Another goal is to make sure Daesh knows that the whorld (sic) knows and cancels the attacks, which will disorientate them for a while.”

Anonymous also made note of the history of November 22, the anniversary of numerous major world events.

The Atlanta field office for the FBI and Georgia Emergency Management Agency had not responded to requests for comment early Saturday afternoon.

Photos by Vincent Diamante / Flickr .