AT&T Philippine Hackers Gaining Revenue for Terrorism Purposes

28 November 2011


The FBI is helping the Philippines arrest four individuals who hacked into AT&T customer’s PBX to gain revenue for terrorism purposes. The hackers are accountable for almost $2million losses for AT&T. The Philippines National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) found evidence that the hack attacks were in fact coming from the Philippines, and while working together with the FBI they also discovered that the hackers were routing money to a militant group. The hackers seemed to be working for Muhammad Zamir, a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, which is a Southeast Asian militant group. Although the FBI will not release information as to how the hackers were making money, FBI spokeswoman stated that they only targeted customer’s PBX and did not break into trunk lines. One of the hackers already arrested had a previous record of helping out militant groups to fund terrorist activities. The CIDG director of the Philippines stated that they are waiting on the implementation of a Cyber Crime Prevention Bill which will aid in a more hands-on approach against cyber criminals who operate from inside the country.




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