In May, hackers claiming to be affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) released a video threatening a series of cyberattacks against the United States, Europe, and Australia. “Praise to Allah,” a hooded figure with an altered voice began,
Both the video and ISIL’s threats were generally greeted with deep skepticism by most Western cybersecurity experts.
One prominent writer on cyber issues criticized the media’s over-hyped response to ISIL’s claims: “Toss out a shitty video that claims that you do things that you’re not — doesn’t matter, we’ll still overact.” He went on to complain that instead of responding calmly, “we lose our shit,” failing to recognize that ISIL’s cyberattacks have been unsophisticated and were likely perpetrated by “either sympathizers or people doing it for shits and giggles.”Federal authorities and U.S. planners, however, viewed the threat as something worthy of more than scatological dismissals. The Wall Street Journal reports that when …