National Post (National Edition)
Canadian, believed dead, behind high-profile ISIL cyber attacks
Terrorism experts try to pin down identity
An Islamic State-linked media outlet says a Canadian man was behind the terror group’s highest-profile cyber attacks, including the embarrassing takeover of the Twitter account of the U.S. military’s Central Command.
The Canadian fighter, said to have been killed by a drone strike in Syria, also allegedly penetrated bank computers and used the “spoils” to fund their fighting and hacked the U.S. Department of Defense, airports, international media organizations and the accounts of “hundreds” of U.S. soldiers.
Terrorism experts say the Arabic-language notice likely reveals a previously unknown Canadian convert who left Toronto to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in its ongoing war.
The Toronto-born man “managed to bring blessed victories for the Caliphate state by carrying out electronic attacks that have made the enemies taste defeat and failure,” according the notice, as translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
The “martyrdom” notice published by Al-muhajireen Foundation, an outlet with known links to ISIL, identifies the Canadian jihadi hacker only by a nickname: Abu Osama Al-kanadi.
Although an ISIL fighter from Calgary named Farah Mohamed Shirdon previously used that nickname, the biographical details in this announcement do not match those of Shirdon and so likely refer to a different Canadian fighter.
ISIL communiqués use fighters’ assumed noms de guerre, or war names, rather than their actual birth names. Abu Osama, also spelled Usama, is Arabic for “father of Osama” and Al-kanadi means “the Canadian.” Researchers say it could mean this man has a son but not necessarily.
The biography provided for the Canadian hacker says he was born in Toronto into a Christian family. The man’s family converted to Islam when he was seven years old and raised him with an Islamic education, it claims.
He was a keen student who excelled at computer programming and graphics and graduated near the top of his high school class, the biography says. He was courted by Canadian universities but instead decided to go to the “'university’ of monotheism and jihad in the cause of Allah,” according to a translation of the notice by SITE Intelligence, another terrorism monitoring group.
The announcement, which was distributed on Nov. 5 through Telegram, an online messaging service, said Abu Osama communicated with like-minded people online before leaving Canada for France, where he first met fellow would-be fighters from Britain face-to-face.
The notice includes an interview with one of those British men who said Abu Osama was shy and quiet and the youngest of their group. They were struggling financially and Abu Osama asked what they needed, the unidentified interviewee says.
When they asked if he had any money, he said he had been blessed with the ability to hack into bank accounts and steal money. Through his hacking, the group financed their efforts in “waging jihad and seeking to obtain martyrdom.”
The announcement says Al-kanadi became a top computer specialist with ISIL, and praises his online exploits. In January 2015, the Twitter and Youtube accounts of the U.S. Central Command, known as CENTCOM, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, were hacked.
A series of PRO-ISIL and anti-american messages were posted on the account, starting with “AMERICAN SOLDIERS, WE ARE COMING, WATCH YOUR BACK. ISIS #Cybercaliphate.”
The accounts’ profile art were change to a black and white image of an ISIL fighter and the words “i love you isis.” Other messages purported to show documents the hackers obtained showing U.S. military plans and a data set of soldier’s names and addresses and ISIL propaganda videos.
Abu Osama also helped with ISIL’S own computer security, protecting it from hacking attempts and cyber attacks “by the forces of disbelievers and darkness,” the death notice said.
The announcement says he was killed by a drone strike in Raqqah, Syria, ISIL’S de facto capital. No date of death was given.
Amarnath Amarasingam, a senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue who co-directs a study of Western foreign fighters based at the University of Waterloo, said the death notice appears to reveal a Canadian jihadi.
“I’m not sure who this guy is but I think it is very much a different Abu Osama Alkanadi than Farah Shirdon. It is common for different fighters to use the same
— the same jihadi name, it’s like a nom de guerre,” said Amarasingam.
There was a hacker collective of ISIL fighters, likely comprised of three to five men, who created headlines with hacks and cyber attacks.
“I’m not surprised a Canadian could be among them. I just don’t know who this guy could be, because it sounds like he is a white convert. There are not a whole lot of white Canadian converts who went,” said Amarasingam.