Hacking for the Caliphate
Junaid Hussain might have been killed in a US led strike operation in Syria .
The US Pentagon has claimed to be highly positive , Junaid Hussain was killed , but no statements from the DAESH media outlets has ever confirmed that information so far , nor Pentagon has provided conclusive evidence .
The Kill Lists
Worldwide press outlets echoed about the fact that the DAESH began distributing long “ kill lists ” of westeners purportedly encouraging its followers ( Lone Wolfs ) to target them .
The lists , which were published via the messaging platforms “ Telegram ” or “ Twitter ”, contained the names , addresses , phone numbers of people from different countries from Western Europe and especially from the US , including military members , government employees , and civilians , who apparently had not had previous relations among them , nor ever participated in the war against DAESH at all .
Thus , the possibility that these groups obtained hacked data for their kill lists cannot be discounted . However , it remains unclear whether the group obtained the information by hacking systems or instead was just gathered from open sources ( OS ). If the group indeed conducted cyber attacks , the provenance of the data is unknown .
DAESH Increases Communications Security Awareness
To date , most of the group ’ s offensive moves have been “ attacks of opportunity ” that grasp at low-hanging fruit , the researchers said . The highest-profile IS cyberattacks targeted Twitter accounts . In January 2015 , a group calling itself the “ Cyber Caliphate ” took over the Twitter handle that belongs to the U . S . Central Command , and the next month , the same group appeared to take over Newsweek ’ s handle . At most , the attacks amounted to digital graffiti , although it can be hard to measure their psychological and moraleboosting effects .
Since at least Apr 16 , DAESH has distributed guides for improving security of communications and personal electronic devices under the name “ Afaq Electronic Establishment ”, an organisation claiming to be “ an independent technical establishment that spreads security awareness and electronic safety among monotheists .” The earliest Afaq release on 20 Apr provided a guide on how to download torrent files and an overview of the risks related to peer-topeer file sharing . On 11 Jun , Afaq released a comprehensive “ technical archive ” containing 14 tutorials on computer security .
The UCC claimed having hacked databases from which they could get those sets of names and personal information intended to foster attacks to be carried out by lone wolfs living in western countries .
While some information about the listed individuals can be found in public records , the lists appear to be compiled via non-public sources , especially when factoring what would be immense labor and difficulty required to manually compile the information via those public sources . This possibility is given plausibility when considering pro-DAESH hacking groups ’ previously claimed attacks , which include the CCA ’ s ( then the Cyber Caliphate ) taking over a French TV station broadcast and the ISHD ’ s release of the aforementioned kill list of nearly 1,500 U . S . military personnel .
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