Junaid Hussain

Junaid Hussain (Arabic: جنید حسین‎‎, c. 1994 – 25 August 2015) was a British-Pakistani black hat hacker and propagandist under the nom de guerre of Abu Hussain al-Britani who supported the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).[1] Hussain, who grew up in Birmingham in a Pakistani-origin family, was jailed in 2012 for hacking Tony Blair's accounts and posting his personal information online.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Hussain left the UK around 2013 for Syria. Sporadic reports surfaced from British media in 2014 speculating that Hussein could have been the infamous British executioner Mohamed Emwazi, then only known as his tabloid nickname "Jihadi John".

Hacking and propagandizing

Hussain was known as TriCk from the disbanded hacking group TeaMp0isoN.[2][9] He was a key figure in a group of Islamist computer hackers who call themselves the Cyber Caliphate. The Islamist hackers have been involved in defacing French websites during the 2015 Île-de-France attacks and the Twitter feeds of the U.S. Central Command, Newsweek and the International Business Times.[1] The group is believed to be behind the use of a spearphishing attack that exposed identities of rebel media groups.[10]

Hussain was in online contact with one of the gunmen behind the Curtis Culwell Center attack of May 2015. Before the incident, an attacker posted online statements on Twitter, in which he requested others to follow Hussain's account. After the shooting occurred, Hussain wrote: "Allahu Akbar!!!! 2 of our brothers just opened fire."[11]

Attempts on life and death

An attempted lethal drone strike on Hussain instead killed three civilians and injured five about ten days before his death.[12]

The Sunday Times reported that US officials had a strong desire to assassinate Hussain, listing him as the third highest ISIL target on the Pentagon's "kill list" behind Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Mohammed Emwazi due to his role in inspiring international lone wolf terrorism.[13][14][15] US government sources reported Hussain was killed with two of his bodyguards in a drone strike on a car in a Raqqa petrol station on August 24, 2015.[lower-alpha 1] Hussain, 21 at the time of his reported death, was married to Sally Jones, 45, a former punk rocker and fellow Briton, who denied his death through IS-linked Twitter accounts.[16][17] Jones later confirmed he was killed. Hussain was reportedly killed in a drone strike that was targeted as a result of him clicking on a compromised Internet link.[18]

Notes

  1. ↑ Because of the international dateline, the date in Iraq time is different to the date in U.S. time. The Pentagon's report says the drone strike occurred on August 24 while The New York Times reports the strike occurred on August 25.

References

  1. 1 2 Russell Myers (13 January 2015). "British hacker suspected of cyber attack on US Central Command Twitter account". mirror.
  2. 1 2 RFSID. "Cyber Caliphate: ISIS Plays Offense on the Web". Recorded Future.
  3. ↑ "DailyTech - Anonymous vs. the ISIS Cyber Caliphate -- War in the Middle East Goes Digital". dailytech.com.
  4. ↑ Thomas Halleck (14 January 2015). "Junaid Hussain: CyberCaliphate Leader And ISIS Member Was Behind CENTCOM Hack, Report Says". International Business Times.
  5. ↑ Emma Graham-Harrison. "Could Isis's 'cyber caliphate' unleash a deadly attack on key targets?". the Guardian.
  6. ↑ Jamie Dettmer. "Digital jihad: ISIS, Al Qaeda seek a cyber caliphate to launch attacks on US". Fox News.
  7. ↑ "ISIS is ramping up efforts to mount a massive cyber attack". Security Affairs.
  8. ↑ Sam Biddle. "Investigators Think This UK ISIS Defector Is Behind the CENTCOM Hack". Weird Internet. Gawker Media.
  9. ↑ Tim Lister, CNN (7 May 2015). "Cheerleaders and freelancers: new actors in terrorism - CNN.com". CNN.
  10. ↑ Tara Seals. "ISIS Likely Behind Cyber-attack Unmasking Syrian Rebels". Infosecurity Magazine.
  11. ↑ Holly Yan, CNN (May 5, 2015). "Who are the gunmen behind the Texas shooting?". CNN.
  12. ↑ "Airstrike targeting British hacker working for Isis killed three civilians instead, US admits". The Guardian. January 29, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
  13. ↑ "British hacker is No 3 on Pentagon 'kill list'". The Sunday Times. August 2, 2015. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Junaid Hussain: How a Boy From Birmingham Became ISIS's Leading Hacker". Newsweek. August 27, 2015. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  15. ↑ Michael Safi (August 12, 2015). "Isis 'hacking division' releases details of 1,400 Americans and urges attacks". The Guardian. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  16. ↑ Charlotte Meredith (August 28, 2015). "The Islamic State's Top Hacker Was Killed in a US Drone Strike". VICE. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Sally Jones". Counter Extremism Project.
  18. ↑ James Cartledge (September 16, 2015). "Isis terrorist Junaid Hussain killed in drone attack after boffins 'crack group's code'".
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