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OPJamalKhashoggi Takes an Odd Turn

Since its beginning, OpJamalKhashoggi has been a very fluid operation which has been utilized to attack a number of targets within Saudi Arabia.  At this time the operation has been run in tandem with the ongoing OpSaudi campaign as another reason to target entities within the Saudi government, as well as the royal family, the House of Saud–who Anonymous have had issues with for some time.  Early this morning though, the operation took an unexpected turn. Reconnaissance data for an organization based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), The Etisalat Corporation, was posted online as part of OpJamalKhashoggi. While it was believed that members of Anonymous could target organizations outside of Saudi Arabia, it was assessed that those entities would have been within Turkey as that was where Jamal Khashoggi died, and the Turkish government had made comments which indicated that they may have known a number of details about Jamal Khashoggi’s death.  The targeting of the UAE’s largest telecom company does not follow with the goals of OpJamalKhashoggi, especially considering Etisalat does not have any ties to Saudi government organizations.

Analyst Notes

While no attacks have been launched on Etisalat at this time , if they do become a victim of OpJamalKhashoggi it could possibly put a significant number of other organizations in the region at risk as it would possibly nullify any targeting parameters for the operation’s participants.