ANONYMOUS has officially declared a war on terror by holding hostage Middle Eastern bank accounts. It is threatening to unleash "global internet destruction" unless the Dahabshiil bank in the Middle East admits to financing terrorist groups.
Update: Dahabshiil has issued a statement wholeheartedly condemning "the illegal actions of the activist group, Anonymous, and its claims of breaching the privacy of hardworking, responsible individuals".
The bank says the claims by Anonymous that connections exist between its business and known terrorist organisations are "quite simply wrong".
"Dahabshiil categorically denies these suggestions," the statement says. "We have never been the subject of any investigation in relation to alleged terrorist funding and we have no involvement whatsoever with money laundering or the funding of terrorist organisations.
"Consequently, we call on Anonymous to withdraw its untrue allegations immediately.
"Dahabshiil places the highest importance on its compliance procedures and has extensive anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing policies in place which are approved by the relevant regulators, including the FSA in the UK. All staff receive extensive and continuous training in this regard.
"We have started a thorough investigation of Anonymous’ attack and will keep all customers fully updated. Safeguarding our customers’ funds is of paramount importance to Dahabshiil. We will continue to work closely with the relevant authorities as we proceed."
Earlier, the hacking group published thousands of bank account names and numbers and is threatening to destroy the bank's electronic systems if it does not publicly acknowledge that it has helped to support terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab.
"We officially declare War on Terror," the group wrote on tech blog, Slashdot.
"This is a call for actions of monitoring and/or destruction of companies and institutions that do work with terrorists, rogue countries, etc."
In the announcement, the group claimed it is not a terrorist organisation and that it was just "fed up with the fact our society is loosing (sic) time".
The group said that WikiLeaks documents had revealed that the Dahabshiil bank had provided direct financial support to al-Qaeda, Al Wafa and other terrorist organisations. It posted documents on Google Plus that highlighted associations with other banking networks including Barclay's in the UK and Ernst & Young in the US.
Anonymous claims to have stolen documents from and destroyed "work stations" in Australia, Kenya, USA, UK, Sweden, Somalia and Dubai. It claims it has hidden "cyber-bombs" in banking networks around the world and that it has attacked routers, firewalls and satellites that would protect banking systems from protecting financial networks.
The bank has been put on notice that it has two months to come forward or expect a "global internet destruction".
"If you want us to immediately stop this cyber-sabotage, it's quite easy," Anonymous wrote.
"We just ask you to stop lying, to recognize your help with Somalia terror, and to officially change your behavior.
"We need a public message from you, as a proof."
