ISIS news: Terrorists hack U.K. cabinet members' email accounts
U.K.'s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has discovered during investigations that ISIS spies have been targeting information held by a couple of David Cameron's senior ministers.
According to The Telegraph, the extremists linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been going through the exchange of emails in some of David Cameron's most senior ministers, including Home Secretary Theresa May's account.
It was reported that one of the terror group's leaders was killed during a U.S. air drone strike recently, and hacking into the accounts of senior ministers could give the terrorists an overview of the top British officials' schedules, as well as events that members of the royal family will be attending.
Although it is unclear what particular materials have been accessed, reports say the cabinet members' security procedures have now been strengthened and passwords were immediately changed following the discovery.
Last month, a 21-year-old hacker from the United Kingdom, Junaid Hussain, was reported to have been killed near the Syrian city of Raqqa, which is the considered center of Islamic State activities. Hussain was believed to be a ringleader in the group's cyber division.
According to reports, Hussain allegedly led the hacker group of the ISIS called CyberCaliphate. The young hacker was sentenced in 2012 to six months in prison after he was discovered to have published former Prime Minister Tony Blair's address book online. He later moved to Syria and joined the jihadists after serving his term behind bars.
Current Prime Minister Cameron said that Hussain and a British ISIS fighter named Reyaad Khan were killed on Aug. 21 in Syria.
RT News reports that the British government has revealed earlier this month that it has come up with a "kill list" of foreign-based extremists shortly after the May elections.
Last Monday, defense secretary Michael Fallon said the government will keep an eye on its targets and would not hesitate to attack other jihadists. "They [ISIS] have plans to mount a series of attacks on Britain and our job is to identify those attacks, the terrorists and where we can forestall them" he said.