Washington: Computer hackers shut down al Qaida’s internet communication system that allows the organisation to commune worldwide, interrupting the group’s flow of videos and communication, according to a terrorism expert.
“Al-Qaida’s online communications have been temporarily crippled, and it does not have a single trusted distribution channel available on the Internet,” said Evan Kohlmann, of Flashpoint Global Partners, which monitors the group’s communications.
The attack was carried out within the past few days by unknown hackers targeting al Qaida’s Internet communications systems. It was “well coordinated and involved the use of an unusual cocktail of relatively sophisticated techniques,” Kohlmann said.
“My guess is that it will take them at least several days more to repair the damage and get their network up and functioning again,” he said.
A year ago, al Qaida’s Internet communications suffered a similar hacker attack.
Earlier this month, British newspapers reported that the UK government hacked an al Qaida website last year and inserted recipes for making cupcakes in place of instructions on how to build bombs. The target was the group’s English language magazine, “Inspire,” intended for Muslims in the West. The magazine is the product of al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen.
Kohlmann said the latest incident “once again appears to bear the telltale fingerprints of government-sponsored hackers.”
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