Published time: 15 Dec,
2015 14:24
© Thomas Peter /
Reuters
https://www.rt.com/uk/325994-isis-dwp-government-hackers/
At least three Islamic
State (IS, formerly ISIS) supporters’ social media accounts are run from IP
addresses linked to the British government’s Department for Work and Pensions
(DWP), a group of hackers has claimed.
The group of teenage
computer experts, known as ‘VandaSec,’ have unearthed details of internet
protocol (IP) addresses used by three jihadists to access Twitter accounts used
to carry out online recruitment.
The addresses were
thought to be based in Saudi Arabia, but upon further inspection they linked
back to the DWP’s London offices, according to the Daily Mirror.
“Don’t you think
that’s strange?” one of the hackers asked the Daily Mirror.
“We traced these
accounts back to London, the home of the British intelligence services,”
they added.
This revelation has sparked speculation that someone inside the government is running IS-supporting accounts, or they were created by intelligence services to trap wannabe terrorists.
The evidence caused the
Cabinet Office to admit to selling IP addresses to two Saudi firms earlier this
year. An expert has suggested this is why the IP’s are linked to the
government.
Following the sale, the
IP addresses were used by extremists to spread their message of hate on social
media.
The DWP denied owning the
IP addresses.
“The government owns
millions of unused IP addresses which we are selling to get a good return for
hardworking taxpayers,” a Cabinet Office spokesperson said.
“We have sold a number
of these addresses to telecoms companies, both in the UK and internationally,
to allow their customers to connect to the internet.
“We think carefully
about which companies we sell addresses to, but how their customers use this
internet connection is beyond our control.”
However, the government
failed to reveal how much money was made from selling the IP addresses.
No comments:
Post a Comment