A British
jihadist fighting with the Islamic State in Iraq is feared to be behind a
cyber plot to empty British bank accounts to fund terrorism in the
Middle East.
Junaid
Hussain, 20, escaped to Syria last year while on police bail, and has
been posting extremist messages on social media pledging to conquer the
world and kill infidels.
Hussain,
who is originally from Birmingham, is pictured online posing with a
scarf over his face and a rifle in his hands, and tweets behind the
alias Abu Hussain al-Britani.
He was
jailed in 2012 for stealing personal information from Tony Blair, and is
thought to be putting his hacking skills to use adding to the
militants’ huge war chest.
According to reports in the Daily Mirror,
British financial institutions are aware of the attacks and working
overtime to prevent their customers’ funds being extracted.
A source told the paper: ‘The hackers are targeting the accounts of the rich and famous, VIP clients of banks and big businesses.
‘This is
an international fraud on an unprecedented scale and the result could be
a bottomless pit of money to fund their campaign of terror.’
Hussain has
not directly mentioned hacking in his stream of Islamist posts, but a
fellow fighter boasted of being bought pizza using celebrity credit card
details acquired by a jihadist hacker.
When the
fanatics swept across Iraq this summer, conquering huge swathes of the
country, they also captured a central bank in Mosul, which they looted
for hundreds of millions of pounds.
The huge
windfall immediately made them the world’s richest terrorist
organisation, and they have been expanding their financial clout as they
storm across the country.
A spokesman
for the British Bankers’ Association told the MailOnline that banks are
always vigilant against attacks from all over the world, launched by
anyone from petty criminals to major organisations.
A spokesman said: ‘Protecting
their customers’ money is the banks’ number one priority. That’s why
they spend hundreds of millions of pounds a year hiring cyber security
experts to combat these kind of threats.
‘If you as
a customer fall victim to fraud through no fault of your own you are
almost certain to have your money quickly reimbursed.’
A
spokesman for GCHQ, the government’s intelligence and security
organisation, declined to comment on attacks from the Islamic State.
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