Pro-terrorist hackers used secretive messaging app to share contacts
A pro- Daesh hacking group have published a chilling ‘kill list’ which includes the names of 39 Brits as fresh terror targets.
The United Cyber Caliphate (UCC) shared the full list of over 8,000 people including their addresses and email contact details on a secretive messaging app service called Telegram, which is written in both English and Arabic.
It urged its supporters to ‘follow’ those listed – and ‘kill them strongly to take revenge for Muslims’.
The posts have an image attached, which declares: ‘All world can’t stop Islamic State’ – and talked of ‘Ghosts’ and a ‘Caliphate Cyber Army’ – together with a fear-provoking picture of a battlefield and a masked soldier.
It is one of the longest kill lists any ISIS-affiliated group has distributed to date.
It is not known if the 39 Brits named are military or government workers – or people in the public eye like royalty or celebrities.
It said most of the names and the accompanying addresses listed ‘appear to belong to people in the United States, Australia, and Canada’.
The numbers of people listed in each country were: USA – 7,848, Canada – 312, Australia – 69 and the UK- 39.
The group has previously published similar lists, such as one in 2015 which revealed the full names of 3,600 New York residents as well as their addresses underneath the headline: “We Want Them #Dead.”
Vocativ last night refused to share further details of those named on the list.
Searches on the Telegram service on Wednesday failed to uncover any list – suggesting it had since been removed.
It is not clear if any of the information published was already available in the public domain or if it had been passed on to relevant authorities.
In a recent study by data and intelligence specialists Flashpoint, the UCC has previously been criticised for ‘taking credit for others’ work’.
The UCC also published satellite images on its Telegram channel showing US air bases around the world on Monday. The same images can be found on Google Earth.
Authorities remain at odds over whether the lists pose an actual threat or are merely scare tactics.
