ISIS hackers have compromised tens of thousands of Twitter accounts, including those of members of the CIA and FBI, in revenge for a US drone strike that killed a British ISIS extremist in August.
Cyber Caliphate, a hacker group founded by ISIS Junaid Hussain, called on its supporters and followers to hack Twitter accounts in order to avenge Hussain's death.
As a result, hackers compromised over 54,000 Twitter accounts. Most of the accounts targeted by the jihadists appear to be from Saudi Arabia, although some of them are British.
The extremists not only hacked thousands of Twitter accounts, but also managed to gain access to personal information, including phone numbers and passwords, of the leaders of:
- The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- United States National Security Agency
Hussain was a British hacker who gained fame within ISIS in Syria as a leading cyber expert and the mastermind behind ISIS's online warfare until a US drone killed him in August.
The hacker group that Hussain founded had ceased its activities after his death, until it resurfaced on Friday, posting a link to a database containing all the data from the compromised accounts on Twitter. The Cyber Caliphate Twitter account has of course now been suspended.
The incident came just a day after another hacking attempt by the group Crackas With Attitude (CWA), which claimed to have gained access to a law enforcement portal containing personal information of those arrested in the US as well as tools for sharing information about terrorist attacks and active shooters.
