Non-State Actors

With mainly the exception of ISIS, I'm not sure how much power non-state powers actually hold.  While yes, they can do small things like make life harder by slowing down a server or maybe blacking out a city block, because of an implanted computer virus I'm not sure what they can accomplish on a grand scale.  I'm not sure what ISIS can do currently on a grand international scale.  The thing that is terrifying about ISIS is that it is promoting it's belief in a way that is likely to grow it's followers, so that eventually it could do something on a more global grand scale.  I would say that as a whole what it scary about organizations like ISIS and the anonymous message is the factor of unknowns.  It is unknown how big or small their organization is, the skills that the members have, or their possible list of priorities and where you fit in them.  The lack of knowledge is what makes them dangerous.  Most of these organizations don't seem to understand that the less they are on anyone's radar the more likely they are to actually get anything done, so to me the ones that make threats and are known about via social media or any other form really aren't the ones I'm scared of.  Knowledge is power.  The most I know about something or someone the better I can prepare for their attack or beat it.  The ones that are scary are the ones hiding in their secrecy and waiting to strike in such a way that gives nothing away.  This is also what makes it difficult to write about them from a media standpoint.  This is probably one of the many reasons why new sites gets facts wrong, and inherent lack of information.  Then when something like The Onion or The Daily Show does a segment on it, because there is a lack of knowledge in the first place it's easy to get wayyyyyy off course to the point where you convince people (like conspiracy theorists) that it's true who then convince more people and it's an awful cycle.  This creates an insane amount of information discourse, because the The Onion or Daily Show isn't going to print a retraction or tell anybody that the original article was wrong.