The threats posed by ISIS cyber attacks are quite worrying, especially in the light of the formation of the new United Cyber Caliphate team, made up of many and dissimilar ISIS hacking collectives. These hacking teams continue to operate informally, remain poorly organized and likely under-funded, according to Flashpoint.
"Before the attacks on CENTCOM and Newsweek Twitter accounts, there were no concerns about the possibility of cyber hacking by ISIS. "Until recently, our analysis of the team 's overall capabilities indicated that they were neither advanced nor sophisticated," said Laith Alkhouri, Flashpoint's Director of Middle East and North Africa Research & Analysis.
"With the recent unification of multiple ISIS-friendly groups (many cyber groups under one umbrella), there seems to be a greater interest and willingness to coordinate and step up cyber attacks against governments and businesses."
The hacking landscape of ISIS consists of at least five distinct teams that launched campaigns to support the terrorist group. Evidence suggests that these collectives overlap or coordinate with each other in some campaigns, notably for pooling resources and human resources.
This contribution culminated on April 4, 2016, with the announcement of a new group called the “United Cyber Caliphate.” After the official merger of the various groups, these efforts show a larger hacker community that is expected to expand further, especially if the online their team functions are successful. Even a limited success could inflate their bad reputation and they will be able to continue to develop their potential by attracting new talent.
Researchers say that hitherto, ISIS hackers appear to have launched attacks primarily on government, banking and media targets. The objectives also produce greater publicity for these groups. However, these attacks remain relatively at a beginner level and are mostly opportunistic attacks.
Such attacks include the detection and exploitation of malicious web sites by small businesses, distortions or DDoSing. But as these hackers mature, they will continue to target financial institutions.
Cyber Caliphate and Islamic State hacking division: An overview of the goals of these groups shows that they can get sensitive data.
Cyber Recruitment: While ISIS has not explicitly attempted to recruit sophisticated hackers, Dark Web forums are used as a training ground, allowing low-level ISIS followers to techniqueς κατάρτισης και hacking ικανοτήτων, να βελτιώσουν τις δεξιότητές τους. Τα forums του Dark Web προσφέρουν μαθήματα hacking σε αρχάριους αλλά και προχωρημένους, διαθέτουν hacking tools and manuals, as well as ways to contact others for support and guidance.
Techniques and tactics: Although it is difficult to assess the techniques and procedures used by ISIS supporters based on cyber-attacks that have taken responsibility, Flashpoint analysts believe that ISIS hackers use concerted campaigns, social media, malware, and technical tools in particular.
Hacking Tools Against Malware: ISIS hackers download hacking tools from sources available to the public while using off-the-shelf and custom malware.
