Romania involved in EU-led attack, IS web media targeted

Romania was involved, along with the Europol, Canada, United States and other European countries in an international operation, a major blow against the internet propaganda of the Islamic State group.

According to the BBC, cyber specialists in various European countries, Canada and the US targeted online sites including the Amaq News Agency, seen as the main IS mouthpiece.

Europol co-ordinated a “simultaneous multinational takedown” of IS media, seizing digital evidence and servers. IS jihadists may now be identified. IS broadcasts in several languages.

The EU members involved in Europol’s operation on 25-26 April were Belgium, Bulgaria, France, the Netherlands, Romania and the UK.

Europol says the data retrieved is expected to help police identify the administrators behind IS media outlets and “potentially radicalised individuals”.

International operations have targeted Amaq web systems previously.

The UK’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit led the process of identifying and referring web domains that had been exploited by IS jihadists, Europol said.

According to research by BBC Monitoring, the IS media operation has shrunk into a shadow of its former self, since IS was ousted from its Raqqa stronghold in Syria, in October 2017.

The IS group’s video and still-picture output fell sharply in the weeks before it lost Raqqa, the same source informs.