British spies hacked into an al-Qaida website to replace
instructions on how to build a bomb with recipes for making cupcakes,
newspapers reported on Friday. The cyber offensive took last year when the
English language magazine called Inspire, aimed at Muslims in the West, was
launched by supported of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
Instead of being able to read how to ‘Make a Bomb in the
Kitchen of Your Mom’, readers were greeted with computer code which actually contained
recipes from The Best Cupcakes in America, published by U.S. chat show host
Ellen DeGenres.
The Washington Post reported that the British action
followed a disputed between the CIA and the newly formed U.S. Cyber Command.
The cyber unit had wanted to block the al Qaida magazine but
the CIA, which had countered such an attack, would expose sources and
intelligence methods, won the debate and declined to allow an attack on Inspire.
The paper reported that it took almost two weeks for AQAP to
post a corrected version of the magazine after it had been sabotaged.
A British security source said the post’s report was
accurate but could not confirm details of the reported cupcake operation.
Last year, British’s new National Security Strategy placed
cyber attacks as one of the top threats to the Country and ministers have
repeatedly spoken out about the danger posed by extremist Islamist websites. The
hackers are very cooling intelligent.
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