What is the meaning of the declaration of a "cyber war" from Anonymous to State Is..

Aonymous declared "cyber war" to the group calling itself Islamic State (EI) , to avenge what happened on Friday in Paris.

The organization of cyber-activists vowed to launch the "largest operation" ever conducted against the extremist group on the internet .

"The attacks (in Paris) cannot remain unpunished, that's why Anonymous from all over the world we are going to give chase," said an individual covered with the characteristic mask of the organization, in a video disseminated on the internet.

"Wait for cyber attacks, has declared war. The French people is stronger than you and will come out strengthened of this atrocity", he added.

The video, released through YouTube, has a total duration of two and a half minutes, and concludes with the sound of the first statements of the French president, François Hollande, following news of the attacks.

Hollande on the attacks in Paris: "France is at war" "Yes, vermin killer of the innocent, we will go for you. Because what we were doing since the attacks on Charlie Hebdo. We will meet and we will not let you escape", added the representative of Anonymous.

"Operation Islamic State"
In his video, the masked individual also ensures that already began its campaign against the jihadists in January 2015, when occurred the attacks against the satirical magazine Charlie Hedbo.

In fact, shortly after, in march, the organization published a list with 9.200 Twitter accounts linked, according to cyber activists, supporters of the extremist organization.

According to a report from Foreign Policy, so far, the hacktivists have managed to "disarm" more than 100,000 Twitter accounts, 149 web pages, and nearly 6,000 videos propaganda related to EI.

And for more than a year, occasional volunteers and experienced programmers have been immersed in this blog battle against the radical islamist group and its followers; a struggle that has significantly increased both in frequency and in visibility in the past nine months.

Many of these hackers, the vast majority of them (though not all) are linked to Anonymous work from various parts of the world and from very different areas.

Don't have much in common, except a passion for computing and the aim of attacking the extremists as part of a global campaign they have called #OpISIS (Islamic State).

But, despite the common goal, some opinions within the group are divided around the question: if Anonymous ' defends the use of the internet without restrictions, why should this warranty be applied to all over the world, including members of radical organizations?

In discussions both public and private in cyberspace, some self-proclaimed members of Anonymous, struggling to reconcile the voices of the collective, says the report of Foreign Policy.

Meanwhile, the "cyber war" against EI has already been put in place. But, up to what point is significant this fight in cyberspace? The boundaries between the war propaganda and freedom of expression

Islamic state widely used the internet, either for propaganda viral, in the work of recruiting or for communications between supporters of the extremist group. Twitter started being the social network most used by excellence, since it allowed them to spread their torrent of propaganda without complications.

Last year, in their advance on Mosul, Iraq, the extremists disseminated messages in this social network with the hashtag #AllEyesOnISIS, saturating the world with a video in which they murdered the american journalist James Foley, then spread also to other executions of activists and journalists in the west.

Another label in the same social network, #AMessageFromISISToUS, provoked a storm of messages between the americans and the militants of EI. For months, Twitter had problems to reconcile its policy of freedom of expression with its new role as a propaganda tool by extremists all over the world.

But eventually the social network took steps, by removing some accounts: on 2 April suspended to 10,000 accounts directly related to EI and increased some measures of security. Even so, the jihadists have maintained their strong presence in the social network.

And some of his users managed to circumvent the new measures by Twitter: the account of Asawitiri Media, for example, was picked up 122 times, obtaining 10,000 new followers in just 24 hours.

However, in many cases, the closing repeated accounts brought the extremists to distribute their propaganda through a new platform: the application of the mobile messenger Telegram, which is considered one of the safest.

Why Telegram is the preferred application by the Islamic State

The organization widely used both platforms, both Twitter and Telegram. But experts argue that some operations of EI in social networks are being managed by contractors and volunteers from various places in the world, and perhaps far from the occupied territories in Syria and Iraq.

The hacktivists have also invested great efforts in destroying the new web pages of the group to spread the news and collect donations for the extremist group.

"If we can disrupt their communication channels will have less strength," he told Foreign Policy @DigitaShadow, one of the hacktivists.

And another of the campaigns against EI on the Internet-and one of the most surreal - is the anime character ISIS-chan, that began after the abduction and execution of the japanese Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto in January 2015.

ISIS-chan is a character of fiction that aims to "disrupt the propaganda of the Islamic State on the internet", through a character from the manga "Moé", whose aim is to "bring peace and melons" members of the extremist organization and teach them that "knives are for cutting fruit, not to the violence".

But a cyber war is going beyond the interruption of the dissemination of propaganda messages.

How counterproductive for the security?

Effectively, to fight cyber against Islamic State also has expanded the espionage and the intelligence services.

Hackers GhostSec, an organization formed in large part by exmiembros of Anonymous, struggling against EI, infiltrate forums jihadists with the aim to decipher the locations and addresses of the ciberyihadistas. This information is then sent to the service of american intelligence.

The answer is in the hacker. At first, they sent information to addresses randomly linked with the u.s. government, but after it partnered with third parties to communicate their messages to the intelligence services more efficiently.

It is for this reason that some security experts consider that the declaration of war from Anonymous could be "counter-productive".

According to told AFP the cyber security expert Olivier Laurelli, the "war" declared Anonymous to EI "could interfere with police efforts to identify the members of EI and to keep track of them".

"The closure of these accounts will make that police investigators are deaf and blind to many things," said Laurelli. It is interesting, for example, know which accounts are active in France, Syria or Iraq," he said.

"To be able to identify the connections and communication between individuals is also essential, but if Anonymous deletes those links, the researchers will come to a dead end".

New threat: cyber attacks fatal

On the other hand, according to the just announced british finance minister George Osborne, the extremists are trying to develop the ability to create cyber-attacks threatening the Uk.

According to Osborne, the islamist hackers seek to take control of the supply of electricity to the nation, as well as the air traffic control and hospitals. According to the minister, EI has already proven its capacity to "exploit the internet with horrible propaganda purposes", including the radicalization and the planning of operations.

But the chancellor, the british warned that the jihadists will now seek to take over the infrastructure of british to snatch lives. "From our banks to our cars, or military schools. Everything on the internet is a target," he said.

Osborne also said that "the jihadists do not yet have the capacity to accomplish something like that, but we know that is what they want to do and we are taking all measures to avoid it".

In response to the threat, the british government has stepped up security and announced the recruitment of more specialists, and close to 2,000 intelligence officers. In addition, Osborne announced the creation of a new National Center for Cybersecurity that will allow to bring together the best experts in the country.

For its part, France also announced more investment in equipment armed and mobilized 115,000 security officials, declared the minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve.