Pierluigi Paganini
December 18, 2015
VandaSec has discovered the internet protocol (IP) addresses used by three jihadists to access Twitter accounts involved in the activities of propaganda and online recruitment.
According to the Daily Mirror, the IP addresses belong to the DWP’s London offices.
“Hackers have claimed that a number of Islamic State supporters’ social media accounts are being run from internet addresses linked to the Department of Work and Pensions. A group of four young computer experts who call themselves VandaSec have unearthed evidence indicating that at least three ISIS-supporting accounts can be traced back to the DWP.”
“Don’t you think that’s strange?” said one of the hackers to the Daily Mirror. “We traced these accounts back to London, the home of the British intelligence services,” they added.
There are two hypotheses on the strange discovery:
The addresses were thought to be based in Saudi Arabia, in reality, the Cabinet Office admitted to selling IP addresses to two Saudi companies earlier this year, this is the reason why the IP appears to be linked to the British Government.
“The government owns millions of unused IP addresses which we are selling to get a good return for hardworking taxpayers,” a Cabinet Office spokesperson said. “We have sold a number of these addresses to telecoms companies, both in the UK and internationally, to allow their customers to connect to the internet.” “We think carefully about which companies we sell addresses to, but how their customers use this internet connection is beyond our control.”
(Security Affairs – ISIS, social media)
