isis.md 2.8 KB
When we asked Cloudflare why it was 'protecting' ISIS websites, CEO Matthew Prince told Mirror Online it was not actually accepting money from terrorists, because the ISIS sites listed by Anonymous relied on its free service.
— Mirror Online, 2015-05-22
This is not true, Mr. Prince!
We looked at 22 ISIS-related domains that use CloudFlare nameservers, and discovered that half of them are on our list of standard SSL certificates. As any CloudFlare employee could have told CEO Prince, the "standard" certificate requires a Pro account ($20/month) or better. These are not "free" accounts with "universal" certificates.
The easiest way for anyone check this out is to enter a domain in our search box. If it's on our SSL list, you will see a link to the SSL data for that domain at the top of our search results.
Mr. Prince, please try harder to get your facts straight before talking to the press. This would make our job a lot easier.
...one year later and we're still confused...
The Taliban's English-language website has been off line for weeks. A hacker tied to an online counter-extremism group called GhostSec claimed credit for taking it down. 'It was not easy, I had to gather a lot of information for it to happen,' the hacker, who goes by the name Paladin, said in an email. The Taliban website likely used technology from web-security provider CloudFlare to protect it from possible cyberattacks, said Paladin, who last week claimed responsibility for taking down the Persian-language version of the website as well. Matthew Prince, the chief executive officer of CloudFlare, said the San Francisco-based firm works closely with government authorities to counter extremist activity online. 'When we get notice that there is a site that is using us that may be illegal or involving content that may be problematic, we reach out to our contacts in law enforcement,' he said. Mr. Prince said he wasn't aware that the Taliban may have been using CloudFlare technology before their sites were knocked off line.
— Wall Street Journal, 2016-06-12
Is CloudFlare a honey pot, or are those venture angels in Silicon Valley paying Mr. Prince to stay stupid?
Some background on 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, a law about supporting foreign terrorist organizations, as it might apply to Twitter (and CloudFlare).