ISIS Online Recruiters Traced to Russia, Eastern Europe

An extremist from ISIS is next to the group's flag in the south of Damascus, Syria, on Sept. 22, 2014. Rami al-Sayed/AFP/Getty Images

A defining trait that sets ISIS aside from other terrorist organizations is its technical knowledge and use of the Internet to recruit fighters and broadcast its atrocities. The locations of 98 ISIS recruiters were recently leaked by a hacker organization known as GhostSec.

What stands out is where these recruiters are operating from. A query of the IP addresses showed that roughly half of them were located in the former Soviet Bloc, with the majority in Russia. Many others were in Slovenia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Armenia.

It could not be confirmed which IP addresses are the actual locations of the recruiters, and which are ISIS members routing their connections through different locations. GhostSec did, however, provide images showing that several ISIS websites are routing their connections through a California-based tech firm.

Most ISIS ground operations are in Syria and Iraq.

The new information suggests that many of the more tech-savvy members of ISIS are operating off-site in the former Soviet Bloc.

An Epoch Times journalist views a Russian-language terrorist recruitment and news website. Benjamin Chasteen/Epoch Times