According to an Indian magazine, the Islamic State (ISIS) is luring Indian hackers with top dollar payments to hack into government websites and steal sensitive data.
"Hackers are also being asked to identify and create a database of potential recruits from Twitter and Facebook. For each 'job,' a hacker would be paid upwards of $10,000," a report on the website in an India weekly magazine said.
"There are various underground communities online where hackers interact regularly. Our investigation reveals that for the past six months, lucrative offers for stealing government data came pouring in and hackers were offered a huge sum. Such [an] amount has never been offered to any Indian hacker before. We found that the offers were being made to spread ISIS's reach in the country," said Kislay Choudhary, a cyber crime expert who works with security agencies.
According to the report, Choudhary noted that stealing government data is part of ISIS's intelligence gathering operation and helps in formulating their India strategy. The report stated: "ISIS supporters are using Facebook and Twitter to propagate its radical ideology and brainwash the youth. Experts believe many hackers have already picked up the offer as over 30,000 have been reportedly contacted by the terror organization in India so far. The recruited hackers are communicating on internet-based services like Skype, Silent Circle, Telegram, and WhatsApp with their Syrian handlers..."
The report noted: "The active profiles on social media, which are being used to spread venom against India, have increased manifold in the past few months. Most of these users are based out of different parts of south India, Kashmir, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Indian handlers are now creating local content to spread their propaganda in Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, Urdu and other vernacular languages in cyberspace. In the past, Bangla has also been used to spread ISIS' hate propaganda, targeting vulnerable youths in Bangladesh and India."
The full text of this report is available to MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor Subscribers.
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