Poor encryption reduces 'capabilities' of Islamic State hackers

A researcher said that hackers working for the so-called Islamic State suffer from weak electronic encryption and concealment of their activities.

Kyle Wilhoit, chief (electronic) security expert, added during the Derbicon security conference that hackers create malicious encryption programs that are easy to track.

He specifically criticized three hacking programs devised by one of the Islamic State's most prominent hackers as "garbage".

He said their poor skills indicated that the Islamic State had turned to internet services to encrypt attacks.

Wilhoit said that while the Islamic State was adept at using social media as a tool to recruit followers and promote its propaganda, its cyber-attacks were ineffective.

"ISIS is really bad at developing encryption and malware," he told the technology news platform The Register, noting that weaknesses in all the tools make them "completely useless."

In his research, Wilhoit examined three different types of tools devised by hackers working within the so-called United Electronic Caliphate, an organization of 17 hacking groups that pledged allegiance to support the Islamic State.

All of the tools had problems, Willehwitt said.

little damage

Efforts to raise funds by donating the electronic currency "Bitcoin" have also been confronted by some fraudsters who collect funds in the name of the Islamic State and establish websites that simulate requests for money donations.

"ISIS does not have a great operational capacity on the Internet, so the organization lacks experience in everything," Wilhoit said.

He added that the organization was making a great effort to hide its activities on the Internet, and there are many examples of this related to the exchange of a picture of the implementation of successful attacks, or those that praise the members of the organization and still retain metadata that can identify the location of the photo.

In his research, Wilhoit said that he had spotted a server belonging to the Islamic State that served as a repository for images intended to be used for promotional purposes.

"You can basically export metadata from each image and get real-time information on where people are working, because they're not really that good at operational security," he added.

He said that many participants in the cyber activities of the Islamic State were killed in the raids launched by the drones.

He added that the "United Cyber ​​Caliphate" began last year targeting tools used by Internet thieves in the West.

"They know they can't develop malicious software, so they use tools that do the trick at the cheapest prices and easy to use," he said.