What similarities do a folk vocalist, a bar executive and a NASCAR winner have? All of them spent their Saturday night trying to overcome a hack by someone declaring association with the Islamic State.
The cyber criminal systemically substituted the backdrop pictures on these and other sites with the Black customary flag favored by the radical group and wrote, ‘Hacked by ISIS. We are everywhere ;)’
Music that played mechanically in a circle was also added to the websites. The song used is from the ISIS recording of a Jordanian pilot being smoldered to death after he was taken captive.
The terrorist-loyal cyber criminal also included a link to a Facebook page under Mohammed Aljzairi, who also used the pseudonym Mohammed Ali. On Facebook, Aljzairi accepted accountability for these hacks and many more, together with the University of California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Nigerian administration. The Facebook page was put down as news of the attacks proliferated, but a Google search associates this name to many affected websites.
Before Aljzairi’s Facebook page was put down, someone posted an image of 30 pages of victimized websites, with 25 websites per page. If correct, this is an astounding 750 sites raided at one time, apparently by one person. Most of the sites Aljzairi accepted accountability for attacking deal with sightseeing and relaxation activities, such as music, hotels and bike rentals.
According to his Facebook page, Aljzairi is a programmer and attended W3Schools, an online expansion tutorial. He ‘liked’ a variety of ISIS Facebook pages and groups. On his Google Plus page, his last known position is shown as Algeria and he portrays himself as an ‘Arab Muslim Algerian.’ It is unknown whether he is an ISIS associate or simply a digital loyalist.
To hack the websites, the cyber criminal exploited a plugin that let Facebook comments to be published there. On Monday, a Google search of Backbar confirmed that ‘Hacked by ISUS’ was still in the site’s page.
In the United Kingdom, the site of folk vocalist Lucy Ward was attacked for about an hour before Fast Host and her technological team detached the compromising pass code. Ward said by phone that she did not feel that she was the one who was targeted, but it wasn’t good for the people to see it with her name on it. She is one of the few Britain inhabitants to be targeted by the hack; the greater part seemed alert on U.S. industries.
Meanwhile, the Edlora Speedway in Ohio, possessed by NASCAR champ Tony Stewart, explained that while it was attacked, no credit card data was infringed.
In addition to attacking many websites, Aljzairi published a list of sites he deemed “susceptible” on Facebook. These included wedding planners, universities, and charities.
A Facebook friend of Aljzairi, who commended the suspected hacker via comments and “likes,” will be present at an “principled hacking test” hosted by an Algerian university.
