Radical Extremism Finally Under Attack by the Competent Good(?) Guys

Among the news items this week is the story about the loose knit band of computer hackers collectively known as ‘anonymous’ focusing their attacks on violent radical extremist groups.  Turning away from retail hacking, or government hacking, or bank hacking; these guardians of civilization have vowed to ‘take down’ websites; expose accounts and even disrupt payments channels used by violent terrorists.

Sweet irony that one group labeled a ‘threat to national security’ can potentially be a solution to diminishing the strength of a violent threat to national security both in the US and globally. We hope that the official hackers (think NSA) have more or less the same ideas, but the internet citizenry is not encumbered by law or oversight.

Military brass, with a couple of decades of poor strategic results, are silent.  If the hackers succeed, even on the margins, we may finally ask the questions previously avoided concerning the competency of national security expert strategies for the 21^st century. They can certainly spend money, but on legacy systems and facilities that appear to have greatly diminished value. Some reform emerges (recent announcements closing 15 bases in Europe) but it will be slow; and asymmetric enemies move fast.

To be fair, if there are military equivalents to ‘ethical hack teams’ they are hopefully covert and we will not hear of them. For the anonymous hackers, they could probably launch a non trivial recruitment campaign nationwide. This will be an interesting story to watch, and eventually a great film.