Hacker Group Strikes ISIS as Online Caliphate Crumbles

Source: independent.co.uk

Muslim hackers have attacked Isis¡¯s propaganda network and published a list of almost 2,000 subscribers¡¯ email addresses in the latest blow to the online ¡°caliphate¡±.

After numerous cyber attacks and official takedowns targeting itsAmaq ¡°news agency¡±, Isis issued a message on Friday night claiming it had increased security.

¡°In response to recent events, we have imposed more stringent security measures on our systems,¡± said the email in Arabic. ¡°We can now handle email attacks or any type of hack.¡±

For a Muslim hacking collective called Di5s3nSi0N, which previously disabled the automated email service last month, it was ¡°challenge accepted¡±. 

Less than three hours later, another email was sent out to Amaq subscribers, but this time displaying the hackers¡¯ logo and a warning. 

¡°We have hacked the full ¡®secure¡¯ email list for Amaq,¡± it said. ¡°Daesh...shall we call you dogs for your crimes or snakes for your cowardice? We are the bugs in your system.¡±

The email contained a list of 1,784 subscribers¡¯ email addresses, which were partly redacted but have been verified by The Independent.

¡°Challenge complete ¨C too easy!¡± Di5s3nSi0N activists wrote on Twitter. 

¡°2,000 email subscribers hacked from Amaq...what is next?¡±

Amaq is one of Isis¡¯s key outlets, issuing claims for international terror attacks as well as updates from battles across the Middle East,Africa and Asia.

At the time of writing, cyber attacks had disabled updates on Amaq¡¯s current website, its Tumblr account was outdated and the only platform it remained able to operate was on the Telegram messaging service.

The Di5s3nSi0N attack was part of the group¡¯s #silencetheswords campaign, which it claims will culminate next week.

Following the declaration of the so-called Islamic State in early 2014, the group¡¯s main aim was for supporters to migrate to its territory in Syria and Iraq. 

It produced countless glossy propaganda videos, images, magazinesand websites in multiple languages attempting to depict a utopia, frequently showing farming, food and money being distributed to the poor and children playing.

But good news has been increasingly hard to come by as militants have been driven out of every major stronghold, leaving outlets to post infrequent battlefield updates from the desert around the Syria-Iraq border, and from smaller branches in countries including Afghanistan, Egypt and the Philippines.

Senior Isis propagandists have also been targeted by the US-led coalition, seeing spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani among those killed last year.

Charlie Winter, a senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR), said Isis can now ¡°barely get out 20 pieces of media a week¡± ¨C down from more than 200 in 2015.

¡°Isis may be less productive than ever, but the quality and ambition of its propaganda remains head and shoulders above that of its rivals,¡± he wrote for the BBC. 

¡°Indeed, in spite of the pressures the group is facing on the ground in Syria and Iraq, the trickle of instructional materials on how to plan terror attacks still emerging online could prove extremely dangerous.¡±