ABSTRACT
In recent years, the world has witnessed the rapid growth of Middle Eastern terrorist organizations combined with hacking activities and other online offences. Jihadist and terrorist organizations have invested heavily in cyberspace to radicalize and recruit Muslim youth as well as to legitimize their cause and atrocities. Hezbollah, Hamas, and al-Qaeda have established a significant presence online (Shay, 2005; Weimann, 2006). For example, al-Qaeda has maintained its presence in cyberspace pre-and post-September 11 and reinforces that presence by publishing e-journals, e-magazines, and newsletters on different topics in different languages. This has led some commentators to believe that al-Qaeda is the first web-directed guerrilla network (Atwan, 2006). The danger of influencing or/and recruiting Muslim youth by terrorist and jihadist organizations in the Middle East and beyond is increasing daily as the number of Arabic Muslim netizens increases. Every day, thousands of people in the region join cyberspace. As of June 2010, there were more than 70 million
Introduction 137 White Hackers and Emergence of AMHs 139 AMHs versus Hactwers 142 Relationship between AMHs and Jihadist and Terrorist Organizations 145 AMHs and Fatwas 146 Conclusion 148 References 148 Additional Arabic Sources 150
online Arabic users (https://www.internetworldstats.com). A significant number of these people either create or participate in online hacking forums that inspire their followers to exercise hacking activities and other online offenses. Therefore, the cyber world faces what I have coined hactwer to describe Rambo Arabic Muslim hackers (AMHs). The new term hactwer is composed of the initials of the following five words: hacker, activist, criminal, terrorist, and warrior. Hactwers hack websites for glory and leave political messages, break laws, and cooperate with terrorists to wage cyber war against enemy websites.
