The US State Department has determined that the hacker group known as Cyber Caliphate has no ties to the Islamic State terrorist group (a.k.a. ISIS or ISIL), despite its support of ISIS activities. But, the US warned that ISIS continues to have unprecedented online recruitment and propaganda capabilities nonetheless.
“Although Cyber Caliphate declares to support ISIL, there are no indications—technical or otherwise—that the groups are tied,” the two-page report from the Overseas Security Advisory Council states.
So who is the Cyber Caliphate? According to the Washington Free Beacon, the real culprits were originally thought to be the Russian hackers suspected to be behind a cyber-attack on TV5Monde television in France last April.
However, the State Department notes that the Cyber Caliphate is a relatively unsophisticated group that has conducted low-level nuisance attacks in the past.
“This included targeting various media outlets, issuing threats against U.S. military spouses, and the highly publicized hacking of U.S. Central Command’s Twitter account and YouTube channel,” the report said.
The TV5Monde attack was another beast entirely. That attack disrupted broadcasts and compromised critical information, including details on the relatives of French soldiers fighting ISIS.
“The methodology employed in the attack was atypical of previous Cyber Caliphate activity, and further investigation by French authorities and US private cybersecurity companies instead pointed to nation-state actors,” the report said.
Instead, IP addresses traced to the TV5Monde attack point to APT28, a Russian state-sponsored hacking group that “was formerly observed targeting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, entities in Eastern Europe, security companies, and journalists,” the report said. “APT28 is assessed to conduct operations to benefit the Russian government, and was not previously seen using hacktivists or terrorist organizations as cover.”
Who the Cyber Caliphate is thus remains unclear. The State Department’s report noted that the Cyber Caliphate could be part of a Russian disinformation operation.
Regardless, the Cyber Caliphate is obviously friendly to the ISIS cause, and fills a need for ISIS even if not directly funded by it. ISIS uses Internet sites and social media strategies to disseminate and control its Islamist message, particularly when trying to reach young and computer-savvy foreigners, including known hackers—lie the Caliphate—who support its ends.
“ISIL’s use of Twitter has been deemed particularly effective; a Brookings study reported at least 46,000 Twitter accounts in use by ISIL supporters during the timeframe of September through December 2014,” the State Department report said.
That said, true hacking activity appears to be beyond the group’s resources, for now.
“Although ISIL continues to demonstrate success in using online tools for propaganda, recruitment, and fundraising purposes, the suspected link of Russian hackers to the TV5Monde attack reinforces the assessment that ISIL still lacks the ability to carry out a technically sophisticated cyberattack,” the report said.