The Islamic State-aligned United Cyber Caliphate claims to have hacked into US State Department records, releasing online information on 43 employees it wants dead. The leak also includes staff with Homeland Security and other agencies, media reported.
The information was released through the group’s account on the messaging app Telegram. The departments of energy, commerce, health and defense have been compromised along with the State Department and DHS, the SITE Intelligence Group reported.
The document is entitled ‘wanted to be killed’ and contains threats to the US, which the group sees as its main enemy. Various staff members from all over the world were identified, including embassy workers in Sudan and Togo, Vocativ was able to verify. The list included other officials, Homeland Security among them.
However, according to Vocativ, the hack is unlikely to reveal much new. A lot of what was listed is publicly-available information, while many numbers are simply office lines.
The hack comes barely a day after the group aligned with Islamic State (ISIS/IS, formerly ISIL) jihadists posted 3,600 purported New York residents’ details, again, under the hashtag ‘We Want Them #Dead’.
These activities are the result of a merger of three distinct pro-IS groups to form the so-called United Cyber Caliphate (UCC). The UCC has been taking on the Anonymous hackers and other groups that target IS online.
One of the group’s most components are hackers with the Cyber Caliphate Army (CCA), which, according to Foreign Desk News, has previously also issued a kill list of 36 Minnesota police officers. The group also allegedly tried hacking Google, but mistakenly hit an Indian SEO company, Add Google Online.