The FBI has issued a warning about a series of hacking activities against U.S. networks that it believes are conducted by sympathizers of the Islamic State militant group, Motherboard reported Tuesday.
Joseph Cox writes the publication obtained an FBI document that states certain hackers have defaced websites, launched denial-of-service attacks and leaked personal information over the past two years “to spread pro-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant propaganda and to incite violence against the United States and the West.”
The document identified online groups such as the Caliphate Cyber Army, Islamic Cyber Army and Elite Islamic State Hackers, the report said.
According to the report, the groups use what the FBI calls unsophisticated methods of attack — such as structured query language injection, cross-site scripting and social engineering – which are meant to exploit website vulnerabilities and steal account credentials.
Cox reports the bureau recommends that users enable automated software updates, disable computer macros and adopt two-factor authentication to help prevent the spread of attacks.
