ISIS News Agency Amaq Hacked; Hacker Group Plans Online Offensive to Wipe ISIS Off the Internet
ISIS is on the retreat not just on the ground in Syria, but online as well. Muslim hackers have broken into the self-professed caliphate's Amaq news network, hours after it claimed to be unhackable.
The Amaq "news agency" posted a message on Friday, Nov. 10, after coming under attack from hackers. "In response to recent events, we have imposed more stringent security measures on our systems," the message said in Arabic as quoted by The Independent.
A Muslim hacking group called Di5s3nSi0N, one of several online entities that have been breaking into and disabling the ISIS-connected agency's online services, took this as a challenge, especially when Amaq claimed that they "can now handle email attacks or any type of hack."
Less than three hours later, the hacker group was in control. Using the agency's own email service, they sent a message to the subscribers in their email list, saying they "have hacked the full 'secure' email list for Amaq."
"Daesh...shall we call you dogs for your crimes or snakes for your cowardice? We are the bugs in your system," the group wrote in their taunting message, and under it, they added a list of 1,784 email address from the group's subscribers list.
The same group, which calls themselves "the steadfast youth of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah" of the Sunni sect of Islam, announced that they are going after ISIS websites and servers as part of their major online offensive on Friday, Nov. 17, as they announced last week via Twitter.
Referring to the scattered ISIS groups after their Syria stronghold was taken over, the group posted another online message saying "As your failed evil Khalifate gets wiped off the map we will wipe you off the internet. Watch this space!!!" as quoted by Newsweek.