4 Teenage Hackers Trace ISIS Twitter Accounts To The UK Government

ISIS is earning the top headlines in media for many obvious reasons from past few weeks. While the entire world was shocked after the ISIS-sponsored terror attacks on Paris, the hacktivist collective Anonymous retaliated with its army of hackers. In another related development, a new group of hackers have claimed that at least
three ISIS-supporting Twitter accounts trace back to UK Department of Work and Pensions.

On the ground ISIS maybe fighting a war with governments, but on the web vigilante hackers have taken this responsibility. Working on the same track, this group of four young computer experts, who call themselves VandaSec, has found evidence tracing multiple ISIS related social media accounts to government offices.

From their supposed Saudi Arabia location, VandaSec was able to trace the IP addresses back to the United Kingdom Department of Work and Pensions. This revelation has sparked a new debate that revolves around unearthing the possible reasons.

“Don’t you think that’s strange? We traced these accounts back to London, the home of the British intelligence services,” one of the hackers told Mirror Online.

This could easily leave people wondering if someone from the UK Government’s offices was trying to recruit the new ISIS members. Others could also label it as a new way of British Intelligence to keep a close eye on ISIS activities.

Well, the real picture is altogether different. The UK officials revealed that IP addresses were sold to Saudi Arabia back in October of this year. It appears that some of them are being used by ISIS.

Explaining further, a UK government spokesperson said:

THE GOVERNMENT OWNS MILLIONS OF UNUSED IP ADDRESSES WHICH WE ARE SELLING TO GET A GOOD RETURN FOR HARDWORKING TAXPAYERS. WE HAVE SOLD A NUMBER OF THESE ADDRESSES TO TELECOMS COMPANIES BOTH IN THE UK AND INTERNATIONALLY TO ALLOW THEIR CUSTOMERS TO CONNECT TO THE INTERNET.

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