Jihadist hacker Junaid Hussain Killed in a targeted air strike

The jihadist hacker Junaid Hussain was killed this week in a US targeted air strike in Syria. The man was actively recruiting ISIS sympathizers.

A spokesman for the US Central Command, Colonel Patrick Ryder, confirmed that the jihadist hacker Junaid Hussain was killed in a targeted air strike on August 24 in Raqqa, Syria.

Colonel Ryder hasn’t provided details on the air strike, he declined to confirm the involvement of a drone.

“He was involved in actively recruiting ISIL sympathizers in the West to carry out lone wolf style attacks,” explained Ryder, confirming that the man was the target of the air strike.

The US intelligence believes that the jihadist hacker is behind a number of cyber attacks, including the one that hit the Central Command websites and its Twitter accounts.

Ryder added that Hussain was responsible for “releasing personally identifying information of approximately 1,300 US military and government employees and specifically sought to direct violence against US service members and government employees.”

It is important to highlight that the information leaked online by Hussain about US military personnel was the result of OSINT activity and not of a data breach of any Pentagon system.

The military was considering the man very dangerous due to its cyber capabilities. Several times security experts warned of possible cyber attacks against US infrastructure, and jihadists with Hussain’s competencies could hit US systems at any moment.

“This individual was very dangerous,” said Ryder. “He had significant technical skills.”

According to prominent hackers affiliated with the terrorist group, the ISIS hackers have the abilities to hit computer systems in the US and Europe. A video released in May by the ISIS was threatening crippling cyber attacks against the Europe, United States, Europe and Australia. The terrorists claim to have the necessary cyber capabilities to spy on Western communications.

“The electronic war has not yet begun,” the pro-ISIS hackers boasted in their latest video threatening the cyberattacks.

Another US defense official declared that Hussain was not in the top ranks, other jihadists represent a danger to the US.

On September 11 214, Fox News reported that leaders of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and Al Qaeda were stepping up efforts to seek a digital caliphate, speculating that one of the jihadist leaders, Hussain Al Britani, also known as Junaid Hussein, had allegedly hacked the Gmail account of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

“Jihadists in the Middle East are ramping up efforts to mount a massive cyber attack on the U.S., with leaders from both Islamic State and Al Qaeda – including a hacker who once broke into former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Gmail account – recruiting web savvy radicals, FoxNews.com has learned.”

In 2012, Hussain was sentenced to six months in prison in Britain for this crime. The jihadist was also cited by two gunmen responsible of the terrorist attack in Garland, Texas. The two men invited via Twitter to follow Hussain.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – ISIS , Jihadist hacker Hussain)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.