Hackers affiliated with the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) who
promised to take down Google appear to have mistakenly attacked the
wrong target.
The so-called Cyber Caliphate Army (CCA) announced
plans on the secure messaging app Telegram to hack Google on Monday;
however, Google services appear to have been unaffected.
“We promised to hack Google,” stated a message seen by Newsweek that was posted to a Telegram channel used by the CCA. “Keep the promise inshallah [God willing], expect us today.”
Instead, the website of Add Google Online
was defaced with ISIS imagery and a message stating, “hacked by CCA”. A
French-language Islamic State song also played, promising: “We will
kill you without pity… for Allah alone we wear suicide belts.”
The
site, registered to Indian firm Always Say, offers search engine
optimization (SEO) services to local businesses but is not connected
with Google. The homepage of Add Google Online, displaying a message from the Caliphate Cyber Army.CCAThe attack on Add Google Online follows similar attacks by CCA on seemingly arbitrary targets, including a small solar energy company in England, a Japanese dance instructor, and a laminate flooring firm based in Wales.
Michael
Smith, an advisor to the U.S. Congress and co-founder of national
security firm Kronos Advisory, believes the increase in frequency of
attacks carried out by ISIS hackers signals an increase in the group’s
cyber capabilities.
Despite the relatively small size of recent
targets, Smith also claims they demonstrate ISIS has achieved more
sophisticated capabilities to damage its enemies’ interests than
Al-Qaeda.
“I expect these activities will become more common,” Smith tells Newsweek.
“Plus, we can reasonably expect to see their hackers’ focus widen from
breaking into government systems to collect information about military,
intelligence, diplomatic and law enforcement officials to doing more
dynamic things like attacking critical infrastructure systems.”
