Jared Cohen - The New Digital Age

one of the greatest shared fears among American troops: Army captain (in Iraq) in discussion with the authors, November 2009.

The IED of 2009 was cheaper and more innovative: Ibid.

What was once a sophisticated and lucrative violent activity: One of the authors first learned about this while speaking on a panel with Jonathan Powers at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 2005. The authors have since corroborated this data point with additional anecdotes from civilian and military officials who have been working on or deployed in Iraq over the past decade.

“maker phenomenon”: Andy Rubin in discussion with the authors, February 2012.

Somalia’s al-Shabaab insurgent group on Twitter: Will Oremus, “Twitter of Terror,” Slate, December 23, 2011, http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technocracy/2011/12/al_shabaab_twitter_a_somali_militant_group_unveils_a_new_social_media_strategy_for_terrorists_.html.

Anwar al-Awlaki, the late American-born extremist cleric: “Profile: Anwar al-Awlaki,” Anti-Defamation League (ADL), updated November 2011, http://www.adl.org/main_Terrorism/anwar_al-awlaki.htm.

several successful and would-be terrorists cited him: Pierre Thomas, Martha Raddatz, Rhonda Schwartz and Jason Ryan, “Fort Hood Suspect Yells Nidal Hasan’s Name in Court,” ABC Blotter, July 29, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fort-hood-suspect-naser-jason-abdo-yells-nidal-hasan/story?id=14187568#.UIIwW8VG-8C; Bruce Hoffman, “Why al Qaeda Will Survive,” Daily Beast, September 30, 2011, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/30/al-awlaki-s-death-nothing-more-than-a-glancing-blow-al-qaeda-stronger-than-everest.html.

“Even the most anti-Western religious figures in Saudi Arabia”: Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud in discussion with the authors, February 2012.

“We pitched propaganda stalls outside the Motorola offices”: Maajid Nawaz in discussion with the authors, February 2012.

Colombian prison officials stopped an eleven-year-old girl: “Colombia Catches Girl ‘Smuggling 74 Mobiles into Jail,’ ” BBC, February 6, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12378390.

In Brazil, inmates trained carrier pigeons: “Pigeons Fly Mobile Phones to Brazilian Prisoners,” Telegraph (London), March 30, 2009, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5079580/Pigeons-fly-mobile-phones-to-Brazilian-prisoners.html.

local gang hired a teenager: Associated Press (AP), “Police: Brazilian Teen Used Bow and Arrow to Launch Illegal Cell Phones over Prison Walls,” Fox News, September 2, 2010, http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/09/02/police-brazilian-teen-used-bow-arrow-launch-illegal-cell-phones-prison-walls/.

going rate for a contraband smart phone: Former member of a South Central Los Angeles gang in discussion with the authors, April 2012.

Afghanistan, a country with one of the lowest rates of connectivity in the world: “Mobile-Cellular Subscriptions” and “Percentage of Individuals Using the Internet,” International Telecommunication Union (ITU), ICT Data and Statistics (IDS), accessed October 19, 2012, http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/.

tens of thousands of political prisoners were killed there annually: The authors received this information during an unclassified briefing with prison staff, February 2009.

terrorist nerve center: Rod Nordland and Sharifullah Sahak, “Afghan Government Says Prisoner Directed Attacks,” New York Times, February 10, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/world/asia/11afghan.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=pul%20e%20charki&st=cse.

Following a violent riot in 2008 in the prison’s Cell Block Three: Description of the terror cell operating from Pul-e-Charkhi comes from Jared’s briefings (unclassified) and interviews during his visit to the prison in February 2009; see also Joshua Philipp, “Corruption Turning Afghan Prisons into Taliban Bases: Imprisoned Taliban Leaders Coordinate Attacks from Within Prison Walls,” Epoch Times, August 29, 2011, http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/corruption-turning-afghan-prisons-into-taliban-bases-60910.html.

Agie responded to a joking request for his phone number: Mullah Akbar Agie in discussion with Jared Cohen, February 2009.

Shortly thereafter, a series of cyber attacks crippled: “Anonymous (Internet Group),” New York Times, updated March 8, 2012, http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/anonymous_internet_group/index.html.

vowed to take revenge on any organization: Sean-Paul Correll, “Operation: Payback Broadens to Operation Avenge Assange.” Pandalabs (blog), December 6, 2010, http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/operationpayback-broadens-to-operation-avenge-assange/; Mathew Ingram, “WikiLeaks Gets Its Own ‘Axis of Evil’ Defense Network,” GigaOM (blog), December 8, 2010, http://gigaom.com/2010/12/08/wikileaks-gets-its-own-axis-of-evil-defence-network/.

A string of global investigations followed: U.S. Department of Justice, “Sixteen Individuals Arrested in the United States for Alleged Roles in Cyber Attacks,” national press release, July 19, 2011, http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/sixteen-individuals-arrested-in-the-united-states-for-alleged-roles-in-cyber-attacks; Andy Greenberg, “Fourteen Anonymous Hackers Arrested for ‘Operation Avenge Assange,’ LulzSec Leader Claims He’s Not Affected,” Forbes, July 19, 2011, http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/07/19/anonymous-arrests-continue-lulzsec-leader-claims-hes-not-affected/; “Hackers Arrested in US, NL and UK,” Radio Netherlands Worldwide, July 20, 2011, http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/hackers-arrested-us-nl-and-uk.

he told The New York Times via e-mail: Somini Sengupta, “Hacker Rattles Security Circles,” New York Times, September 11, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/technology/hacker-rattles-internet-security-circles.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.

Boasting aside, Comodohacker was able to forge: Ibid.

compromised the communications: Ibid.

He said he attacked: Ibid.

declared that he was “one of the strongest haters of Israel”: “I Will Finish Israel Off Electronically: Ox-Omar,” Emirates 24 / 7 , January 22, 2012, http://www.emirates247.com/news/world/i-will-finish-israel-off-electronically-ox-omar-2012-01-22-1.438856.

a file that contained four hundred thousand credit-card numbers: Chloe Albanesius, “Hackers Target Israeli Stock Exchange, Airline Web Sites,” PC Magazine, January 16, 2012, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398941,00.asp.

most of these were duplicates: Isabel Kershner, “Cyberattack Exposes 20,000 Israeli Credit Card Numbers and Details About Users,” New York Times, January 6, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/world/middleeast/cyberattack-exposes-20000-israeli-credit-card-numbers.html.

He claimed to represent a group of Wahhabi hackers: Jonathon Blakeley, “Israeli Credit Card Hack,” deLiberation, January 5, 2012, http://www.deliberation.info/israeli-credit-card-hack/.

“It will be so fun to see”: Ehud Kenan, “Saudi Hackers Leak Personal Information of Thousands of Israelis,” YNet, January 3, 2012, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4170465,00.html.

the websites of Israel’s El Al Airlines and its stock exchange were brought down: Isabel Kershner, “2 Israeli Web Sites Crippled as Cyberwar Escalates,” New York Times, January 16, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/world/middleeast/cyber-attacks-temporarily-cripple-2-israeli-web-sites.html.