Al Qaeda plans to launch an electronic Jihad on Nov. 11, attacking Western, Jewish, Israeli, Muslim apostate and Shiite Web sites, according to an unconfirmed report. The report comes from DEBKAfile, an Israeli an online military intelligence magazine, which said on Oct. 30 that their counter-terror sources had picked up a special Internet announcement in Arabic. According to DEBKAfile, Osama bin Laden"s followers announced on Oct. 29 that on Day One they would test their skills by launching cyber attacks against 15 targeted sites and would expand the e-Jihad thereafter until "]hundreds of thousands of Islamist hackers are in action against untold numbers of anti-Muslim sites."
Don"t freak out just yet, however, as the report is being treated with skepticism by many law enforcement officials, and with good reason. This is not the first rumor about an electronic Jihad to seize the Internet citizenry"s imagination. Aug. 26, 2004 was also supposed to see the Internet go down in e-flames from a sustained and devastating cyber-attack by Islamic cyber-Jihadists, but the rumors at that time turned out to be utterly baseless.