Hackers trace ISIS Twitter accounts back to the UK govt

A group of hackers known as VandaSec claims three ISIS Twitter accounts trace back to computers belonging to the UK government.

According to the revelation of a group of hackers known as VandaSec, at least three Islamic State Twitter social media accounts are run from IP addresses linked to the British government’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

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.

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There are two hypotheses on the strange discovery:

There are ISIS Sympathizers inside the British government.
The accounts are used by the British intelligence to identify wannabe terrorists and other members of the organization.

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.”

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – ISIS, social media)

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”.