Online tactics changing since recent attacks?

[X-Rap]

I've been following the thread on training and it has occurred to me that cyber defense is something often overlooked. I'm no computer guru but I know that there have been some serious hacks in the past revealing identities that were otherwise anonymous (think Ashley Madison).
I know that on the few boards that I participate in I've identified a handfull of people by either their presence elsewhere, picture of themselves, or picture of a place (this by total coincidence, wonder who I could ID if I had the skills and motivation).
It is well known that the terrorists ISIS have sophisticated cyber abilities so I wonder what the possibilities of some of their hackers hitting a few of the bigger gun forums in pursuit if weapons here in the US.
Seems reasonable to believe that a number of desirable weapons, ammo and their locations could be gleaned from photos, IP addresses and such just as with other hacks. I'm not suspecting them to do anything beyond cataloging people, addresses, and weapons to later forward to their compatriots here in the US.
It's my belief that the terror groups will be arming themselves with guns acquired here within the country by purchase or theft. I'd also expect them to attempt to get guns through direct assault on gun owners in the field, following them after purchase and other means that we in the past probably haven't worried about.
This will work in the favor of both the terrorists and the antis because it's obvious that the administration intends to continue blaming gun owners and the ability to arm ourselves as part of the threat and if it turns the antis way the terrorists will benefit from a more restricted and defenseless public.
I personally try to not jump into these threads with lists and picture heavy displays of guns, photos of my ammo stash, open door safe pictures and such for all the reasons above, anybody else thinking likewise?

 

[Doc7]

I don't think they have time and money to do what you are suggesting, flying around the country hitting individual owner houses for a rifle or two.

 

[chipcom]

Why would the terrorists need to buy/steal guns here? Our government has already provided them all the military weapons and equipment they need and continues to do so. No background checks, no registration, no restrictions on alleged "lethality" , no cost, no questions asked.

 

[Odd Job]

I also don't think they would have to do that in the US. They can simply buy the guns at Walmart new, or second hand from Joe Public.

 

[X-Rap]

I guess I've been misunderstood, what I'm envisioning is an ongoing data base that might include gun owners, gunshops, public ranges, informal (remote) public ranges all put into use by cells in their area of operation. I'd also add in construction/mining companies and suppliers who would have explosives.
I don't think time, money or expertise is short in ISIS at the moment and I guess I am a believer when it comes to them being at war with the west and the US in particular.
I'm looking at this from a perspective of how I would propose to self supply an insurgency in a country in which there is little problem with getting individuals into a country but more difficulty and danger of being discovered if those individual immigrants were armed.

 

[X-Rap]

I'd say that facebook and you tube are even bigger advertisements since there is usually no premise of anonymity and it is not uncommon to see displays on either and many can be located by gps.

I've heard that ISIS has a huge presence in social media so I would suspect that they must be using to gather information just like our own gov. is.

 

[Telekinesis]

I think it's a valid question. Maybe low probability, but valid none the less.

If terrorists are smuggling themselves into the country (illegally), they can likely bring whatever they want including automatic weapons, explosives, and maybe even things like mortars. I can't imagine that it would be too hard for a dedicated and well funded team to find a gap along our coastline to land a boat. In that case a list wouldn't help at all.

We already know (or have seen reports on the news for whatever that's worth) that terrorist groups have online training materials. Things like operational handbooks and intelligence/counterintelligence/surveillance countermeasures. A list like the OP envisions could easily be passed along with this material.

I think the threat from this type of information would not be roving gangs of ISIS gun snatchers, but more so in the event that a local gets radicalized, does a search for his own zip code and finds all the people near him who post on gun forums and likely have guns that could be stolen.

Now, I said that this is low probability. Firstly because that requires someone local to you to actually wanting to do this, but also because there are other (arguably) easier ways to get guns. If the person is a member of a developed cell, they probably already have a way to get guns that doesn't draw unnecessary attention to the group; and if they're a lone wolf / newly radicalized with a clean record, it's unlikely that we would have enough information to stop him from buying a gun legally even with background checks.

I agree that Facebook as YouTube are likely more at risk. I'm sure they'd appreciate being able to see the items before stealing them. Then again I'm not sure what kind of security your average gun forum has compared to something like Facebook and Google.

 

[hso]

No

The first rule is avoid detection and conducting robberies gets attentio . So, no it is the opposite of reasonable to expect this.

 

[Onward Allusion]

X-Rap
Join Date: September 23, 2006
Posts: 5,640
Online tactics changing since recent attacks?

Yes. It "can" be done, but it ain't worth the time and effort planning a robbery of an individual gun owner or even half a dozen when there are easier ways to get guns. Got any idea how easy it is to MAKE an AK or AR???

Also, keep in mind that guns are pretty ineffective at mass killing. No, really...I kid you not. Despite all the propaganda from the Anti's, it takes time to kill someone with a bullet. A bomb or even fire can do a much more effective job. Ban matches and gasoline?

 

[Schwing]

I have worked in I.T for over 20 years now and can tell you that the information gathering part of the O.P.'s statement is realistic. It has been many years since I have been among the hacker crowd but I would say there is FAR more information easily available today than there was back when I was doing that kind of stuff. I have to add that being a hacker back then had nothing to do with malicious intent or theft. It was a challenge to find the nooks and crannies out there. I was even in a group at one time that took turns trying to access one anothers networks etc. It was fun, educational and harmless.

Given enough time, no network is 100% safe. All it takes is one really bored 14 year old hacker to break into almost any of them. These are individuals with limited resources.

Data mining companies with extremely intelligent employees and the best technology available already have access to thousands upon thousands of petabytes of information gained from online activity. Most people are not aware that literally every keystroke you make online is tracked somewhere. Every post you put online and every purchase you make is recorded somewhere and these companies make millions taking those pieces of information putting them together to make profiles that are used for marketing etc.

Now, terrorists using this information to target individuals for firearms theft seems like more trouble and attention than it is worth to me. Besides the fact that many of these cells are funded very well. I doubt they lack the resources to get weapons or anything else they need.

 

[Hoppes Love Potion]

I think it's a concern. Many cameras now automatically add GPS data to each picture. That's like putting a neon sign on your house saying GUNS HERE.

 

[Jeff White]

Before there was a real danger of terrorists in this country there were plain and ordinary run if the mill criminals. And even before the Internet and social media, they used to do things like read the obituaries and social pages in the old print newspapers looking for homes to target while people were at funerals and homes that might be full of wedding gifts. It got to the point that most papers printed wedding announcements after the wedding happened.

Smart people practiced OPSEC long before the Internet. Social media is a gold mine that criminals have been mining since MySpace.

 

[Leanwolf]

As far as Muslim terrorists in the U.S. having to steal guns, I doubt they'd have any real problem smuggling guns across the U.S.-Mexican border. Automatic stuff, etc.

L.W.

 

[george burns]

Every house in my development, "going by all the people I have met in 7 years" have at least 1 gun in them. I remember 15 years ago, some statistic came up on the news that said 80% of Floridians had access to a gun. And 50% of vehicles had a gun in them when occupied, This makes sense when last month alone 185,000 people applied for concealed carry permits.
And you don't need a license of any kind to buy a gun if you don't carry. You still can have it in the car, boat, house, or business. So who knows how many there really are.
I would bet there are more than politicians think there are. We have 2 or 3 million who have licenses alone, plus probably 5 times that many who just have a gun in the house, as 4 out of 5 neighbors don't carry, they just have it for home defense.
Also those who don't have a gun, are seriously thinking about getting one, for the first time I can remember. Because the Sherriff said it was ok and those old school folks needed that confirmation to go ahead and arm themselves.

 

[Old Shooter]

As far as Muslim terrorists in the U.S. having to steal guns, I doubt they'd have any real problem smuggling guns across the U.S.-Mexican border. Automatic stuff, etc.

We've all read about the tunnels discovered along the border states, some even complete with a rail system for moving dirt, supplies, drugs and people. I'm sure the cartels would sell tickets to anybody in ISIS for enough money to move them and any sort of munitions they may desire from the Mexico side to the US. They could probably just buy the automatic weapons and explosives from the cartels to keep it simple.

I don't think their plan would be to come over here and rob houses on Main Street hoping to get some deer rifles, maybe a AR15 or two and a 22 pistol.

 

[rcmodel]

In 2009 there were 1,626 metric tons of drugs smuggled into the United States by the drug cartels.

Tell me you couldn't just as easily give the drug dealers a full auto AK-47 in every bail of marijuina they haul across the border from Mexico every day!!

Or a tactical Nuke, or biological agent, as soon as they get them.

We can't stop weed or 'undocumented persons' from coming across the border now.
And aren't even trying too under the present administration.

So how can we expect to stop weapons of mass destruction from flowing in freely too??

rc

 

[harrygunner]

It is very difficult to not be tracked these days. Lack of awareness is a large part of the problem.

Firearms related sites should use SSL, i.e. "https" instead of "http". I've noticed several have recently. Adds some privacy and secures logins. Anyone could sniff logins to pick up passwords we use. Certificates are cheap now. There's even a site with the word "cheap" in its name. https://www.namecheap.com/security/ssl-certificates.aspx offers years of service for under $50.

Another big problem is, website developers don't care about privacy. This one page we are viewing now has over 100 references to the word "Google". Everything we do here is conveyed to that company.

About JPEG headers, http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/jhead/ has Windows executables and Linux source to strip all header info from images before uploading them.

 

[X-Rap]

I fully agree that there is very little stopping terrorists from smuggling whatever they want through our borders but a group of men seen with rifles and substantial ammo will get quite a bit of attention as the try to integrate and move out into our population.
Large numbers of the same along the border will certainly raise suspicions even in our present state of slumber.
A WMD here and there with connections along the way to store it would be worth their risk but sending sleepers here to wait for weeks, months, years along with sufficient small arms would be a tactical mistake. With worldwide communication what it is today, compiling lists of possible caches of weapons, ammo, explosives makes sense to me. That doesn't mean individuals will be the only source but I see it as one source.
Even if it's local thieves, you'll not see pictures, lists, detailed descriptions of guns, ammo and accessories from me.
In todays world there are to many people relentlessly trying to poke holes into your cyber world, just run an add on craigs list and see the scammers from all over the globe want to "help" you out.

 

[coloradokevin]

Meh. They can come and try to take them whenever they want!

There's rarely a time when someone isn't home at my house, at least one of our two 90 lb dogs is very home protective, and we're more or less armed to the teeth. We also have good neighbors who keep an eye on our place when we aren't.

It's really hard to hide these days, and I suppose most of us could reduce our online presence a little bit if we were worried about such things. But, honestly, criminals could more easily follow people home from ranges or gun shops if they were looking to identify the residences where guns were owned. Trying to hack random online profiles on a gun forum seems to be an inefficient way to accomplish a task that could easily be accomplished through simple conventional surveillance techniques.

I'm a moderately tech-savy person. I'm no hacker or programer, but I understand how technology can aid us or hurt us. I'll say this much: the person who takes the time to hack my profile and figures out where I lives is taking a very grave risk by trying to come here and act on that information in a criminal manner.

 

[psyopspec]

And aren't even trying too under the present administration.

As someone who lived in AZ under the last administration, let me assure you that the lack of effort you perceive isn't new since 2008.