A hacker group known as the Egyptian Cyber Army (ECA) has said that its number one priority is targeting the webpages of jihadis and terrorists. The group came to prominence last month after it hacked links to a video of the Sinai-based Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis (ABM) group, which showed deadly attacks against Egyptian soldiers. The video was released shortly after ABM joined the Islamic State (ISIS) and became its official branch in Sinai.
The majority of the ECA hacks have been against webpages affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which the ECA has referred to recently as a terrorist group. The group also took responsibility for attacking other webpages which it deemed a threat to Egypt's stability. Additionally, the ECA expresses pro-Egyptian regime sentiment on its Twitter account (@egyptianarmy30), and, in a video posted online in March 2014, endorsed Egyptian President 'Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sisi for president. The ECA nonetheless denied being affiliated with the Egyptian regime.
According to a November 21, 2014 interview with official ECA spokesman Major Khalid Abu Bakr on the news website vetogate.com, the idea behind the ECA came in response to the continuous conspiracies aimed at weakening and harming Egypt.
Abu Bakr, who claimed he was no longer a member of the Egyptian military, said that the ECA comprises an unknown number of young patriotic Egyptian men, including tech-savvy kids under 18, with expertise in the field of 'Internet, networks, and websites...' The team includes civilians as well, he said, and added that people were accepted into the ECA if they possessed the technical expertise, shared a sense of belonging to the homeland, and were willing to protect it 'by all possible means.'
In the interview, Abu Bakr listed many of hacks that the ECA was allegedly behind, and boasted that the ECA was capable of hacking '90% of all online servers.'
To request a full copy of this MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor report, send us an email with the report title, number, and date in the subject line, and include your name, title, organization, and official contact info in the body of the email.
Latest Posts
