ON THE CUTTING EDGE: Hacking al-Qaeda
How did the U.S. government get Usama bin Laden’s Sept. 11 tape before al-Qaeda could disseminate it to Jihadi wannabes? Thanks to the efforts of a 50-year-old SC Web designer who goes by the nom de guerre Laura Mansfield, who found and released the tape to the government and the media. (Last week’s tape was similarly unearthed and divulged by a group called the SITE Institute.)
"It was the latest round of electronic warfare between al-Qaeda and a small community of individuals and companies that troll the Internet for messages from terrorists -- as a livelihood, a personal obsession or both," reports The Washington Post. They are so good at finding and filching password-protected content from al-Qaeda-affiliated Web sites "using a combination of computer tricks, personal connections and ingenuity" – there’s a friendly rivalry to be first - government agencies turn to them for the material.
Comments