A secret hacker group claims that they are making headways in spying on the activities of ISIS. The group known only as Ghost Security claims that spying and collecting critical information about ISIS have led them to thwart at least one terror attack.

The group was established following the infamous attack on the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo in January which left 12 people dead and 11 others injured. Before establishing Ghost Security, members of the group were originally affiliated with another hacker collective known as Anonymous. Ghost Security members cited Anonymous' unsophisticated tactics as the reason why they left the group.

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Ghost Security Group's executive director told BBC, "They [Anonymous] don't have any counterterrorism experience whatsoever. We felt that not enough was being done and the Charlie Hebdo attack made it clear that ISIS was not confined to the Middle East."

According to CNN, members of Ghost Security include linguists, computer specialists and counterintelligence officials. The group has been monitoring Twitter accounts whose users are suspected to be working ISIS. Some of them are reportedly being used by high-profile ISIS members.

The director of Ghost Security said that its volunteer members are scattered across the globe with some located in the United States, Europe and even the Middle East.

Unlike most activist hacker groups that try to shut down ISIS controlled websites and social media accounts through distributed denial of service (DDos) attacks, members of Ghost Security operate more as a spies that hackers. Instead of launching destabilizing attacks, they blend and infiltrate ISIS controlled message boards in order to find information which they then pass on to law enforcement agencies.

The group claims that they are trying to operate within the confines of the law. However, it is important to note that hacking is still considered illegal regardless of who the targets are, even if they are ISIS militants. Ghost Security claims that hacking ISIS falls into a "giant gray area."

Tagshackers, hack, Ghost Security, Ghost Security Group, hacking group, ISIS, ISIS hackers, Ghost Security Spying on ISIS