Pierluigi Paganini May 17, 2015

Pro-Isis Hackers belonging to Cyber Caliphate hacking team threaten ‘Electronic War’ on US and Europe. Which are ISIS cyber capabilities?

Is the Islamic State group able to engage a cyber war against Western countries? According to prominent hackers affiliated with the terrorist, the ISIS hackers have the abilities to hit computer systems in US and Europe. A video recently released by the ISIS is 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.

We have discussed several times about the possible effects of a cyber attack against critical infrastructure of the country, the availability online of hacking tools makes these operations possible and western intelligence agencies don’t exclude that among the ISIS militants there are skilled hackers able to hit computer systems worldwide.

Among the group of hackers that claim to be affiliated with the ISIS there is a collective of hackers calling themselves the “Islamic State’s Defenders in the Internet,” also known as Cyber Caliphate. The group, which was involved in the hijacking of social media accounts belonging to the US CENTCOM, released a propaganda video threatening cyberattacks anticipating the operation of the terrorists in the Internet.

“Praise to Allah, today we extend on the land and in the internet. We send this message to America and Europe. We are the hackers of the Islamic State and the electronic war has not yet begun,” the video said with a distorted voice and picture of an Anonymous member. “What you have seen is just a preface of the future. We are able until this moment to hack the website of the American leadership and the website of the Australian airport and many other websites.”

Part of the IT security community doesn’t consider the ISIS a real cyber threat, I belong to the group of experts that don’t exclude that its sympathizers could hit Western computing systems.

The terrorism is probably the first concern for the US Government, the Americans fears a possible and imminent attack on the US soil. In an interview with ABC News, Jeh Johnson, the current United States Secretary of Homeland Security, explained that the Islamic State represents a serious threat for the Homeland Security due to its ramification worldwide. The official express concerns for the activities of the IS far from its territories, Syria and Iraq.

It’s my opinion that possible attacks could benefit of information gathered with cyber attacks, we cannot exclude also cyber attacks of lone hackers that could breach government entities or compromise computer networks of companies operating on the US soil.

Recently hackers claiming to be members of the ISIS hit the shooting at Garland, Texas, where Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi were killed by authorities after opening fire at an event featuring cartoons of Prophet Mumhammad and Birmingham jihadist fighting with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

It’s interesting to note that a few hours before the ISIS attack a user known as, TriCk or Hussain, tweeted mentioning ISIS and supporting the recent attack. The user is recognized by British authorities as a highly skilled hacker which was involved in the past in cyber attacks against financial institutions.

“Authorities also noted he is related to attacks against Sarah Palin, NASA, NATO, the United Nations, BlackBerry, and the English Defense League. The attacks listed above were credits of TriCk’s first group, TeaMp0isoN.” reported the Freedom Hacker web portal.

Let’s close with a note for the ongoing online dispute between members of the Cyber Caliphate group and the Anonymous collective that if fighting the ISIS following tragic events of Charlie Hebdo.

The New York Times reported that a group of hackers is interfering with the activities made through social media by members of the ISIS group.

I will monitor the events online to provide you more detailed information in the next future.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – ISIS , Cyber Caliphate)