Pierluigi Paganini
July 17, 2016
I’m continuing to interview hackers that try to destroy the online propaganda of the Islamic State, people that are involved in a silent battle that many people still ignore.
Today I’ll present you Mr Xer, enjoy the interview!
You are one of the hackers that silently every day fights to destroy IS activities online, could you tell me which his your technical background and when you started hacking?
Did you know that it only takes 20 hours to learn a subject? Now learning a subject for 20 hours does not make you an expert. To become an expert it takes years, and I have spent the last 3 years learning the ways of hacking.
As for my technical background, I was taught by a few black hats and lots of books. I spend a lot of my time in the pursuit of knowledge, so my skill range is large. I don’t focus too much on a specific subject because I do not like to stay in one place.
What was your greatest hacking challenge?
Well, I suppose taking out a large botnet. The botnet’s focus was to scam/blackmail on social media (Kik, Twitter, and others) It was brought to my attention when a family member was blackmailed by it.
The botmaster bought 50 bots on the dark web and set them up to run a script that would S.E. someone for private pictures, then black mail them with the pictures.
I took the C&C away from the botmaster, and handed it off to an another anon friend of mine.
Do you think that IS militant are exploiting Dark Nets and other covert channels for communication? Which ones?
I got to say yes on this. IS is being hunted by many private and government agencies. (Anonymous and GS falls into this category)
We are attacking them too, forcing ISIS members to hide. They can no longer hide on the surface web. We have proved this on many social platforms.
IS militants have flocked to encryption, and anonymity to survive. What they don’t know is we have been in the anonymity game, and we know how to exploit the weaknesses.
Which are the most interesting hacking communities on the web today?
The ones you don’t see 😉
Honestly, lots of groups that act in the open (Anonymous, OurMine, reformed lulzsec) are swarmed with children looking for a title. You see this in the AnonHQ’s top level chat (discord). It’s full of children who aren’t there to learn or make a difference.
They just want to tell their friends that they are a part of anonymous.
That just ruins their rep as actual hackers. Anonymous has become nothing but ‘sript kids’ who keep their Kali Linux password as ‘Toor’.
Do you believe that the IS represents a serious threat to critical infrastructure worldwide? Why?
My answer is yes but I am mixed. I say this because, through out history there were groups like the Isis, that have been causing terror. Whether it be small groups of huge countries.
Am I saying, “lay down your arms, it’s no hope.”
Hell no. With groups like this, you must have balance, something to counter them. People like us. They are a serious threat, and if they are not stopped/countered it will not end well.
We often hear about cyber weapons and cyber attacks against critical infrastructure. Do you believe it is real the risk of a major and lethal cyber attack against a critical infrastructure?
With the technology being developed today I believe cyber attacks are beyond lethal. Whether it’s hospital equipment or nuclear power plants, it can kill.
We, as humans, are relying on technology. If technology fails we will plunge into chaos.
We saw this with Stuxnet.
Based on your experience, which is the technical background of IS militants?
The usual IS militant doesn’t have adept tech knowledge. That I have met anyway. (Now there are a few black hats that do jobs for em, but it’s rare.)
Lots are young men looking for a cause and are willing to dedicate their life. They’re a few who do, and are usually harder to hunt, but hey. Who doesn’t like a challenge?
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(Security Affairs – Hacker, Mr.Xer)
