On the fourteenth anniversary of the 9/11 terror plot, which claimed the lives of 2,977 victims, Twitter accounts claiming to be affiliated with ISIS started the #AmericaUnderHacks hashtag, according to reports from the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium.
The ISIS hashtag had well over 1,000 tweets by 12 a.m. on September 11. Accounts appearing to be sympathetic to ISIS claimed to have successfully hacked White House computers and to have accessed President Barack Obama’s cell phone. Further goals of the 9/11 cyber terror plot remain sketchy.
One tweet from an account appearing to be affiliated with the terror group named “Islamic Cyber Army” showed an image of a spreadsheet purported to contain the names, addresses and telephone numbers of White House administration staff along with the statement (translated from Arabic) “Breakthrough the White House we adopt a responsible pull data from them and publish each.”
Names included in the list are actually from the U.S. House of Representatives, which may call the veracity of the terror plot into question. An edited version of the image is included.
Heavy is reporting that the #AmericaUnderHacks hashtag was started by the “Islamic Cyber Army” account and “Caliphate Hackers.” A third account “Islamic State Hacking Division” is reported to have carried out hacking and cyber terror plots in the past — potential links between the three accounts are unknown.
Caliphate refers to a state of pure Islam by jihadists related to the ISIS terror group. A vast majority of Muslims consider ISIS to be a terror group and would not live in such a state.
In an August terror plot, an ISIS affiliated group called the “Islamic State Hacking Division” released a list of 1,400 U.S. government and military personnel, including their telephone numbers, locations, passwords, excerpts from Facebook conversations, and credit card information according to reports from CNN. Online terror trackers were unable to verify that the information had actually come from ISIS.
The terror group made made statements with regard to its goals at the time.
“We are extracting confidential data and passing on your personal information to the soldiers of the khilafah, who soon with the permission of Allah will strike at your necks in your own lands!”
A U.S counter-terror group called Ghost Security claimed responsibility for taking down the “Islamic Cyber Army” Twitter account, hindering the success of the 9/11 cyber terror plot.
The Ghost Security website states the nonprofit group’s anti-terror mission.
“Our mission is to eliminate the online presence of Islamic extremist groups such as Islamic State (IS), Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra, Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab in an effort to stymie their recruitment and limit their ability to organize international terrorist efforts.”
(ISIS Screenshot Courtesy Vox / YouTube — U.S. Flag Photo by Ezra Shaw / Getty Images — ISIS Spreadsheet Screenshot via Abdullah Al-Ghazi / Twitter)