Confused ISIS Hackers Attack Non-League Football Club

Jihadi hackers said to be linked to the so called Islamic State have reportedly struggled to locate appropriate targets.

ISIS hackers are said to have hacked the Twitter account of a non league English football club. Last month, jihadis hacked Bristol’s online bus timetable.

Football Hack

The football club in question is lowly Heybridge Swifts, which is currently 18th in Ryman League Division One North, and boasts just 100 regular fans for home games.

According to the Daily Mail, the club believes the ihadi hackers confused them with a Premier League club. The hackers have reportedly hacked the club’s official Twitter account, which means they cannot remove a picture of the ISIS black flag.

But the club has relatively few Twitter followers (just 3,586), and the offending post has been retweeted just six times.

Incidentially, the post reads “FREEDOM JİHAD.. I LOVE AL QAİDA.. I KURDİSH ARMENİAN MUSLİM.. I LOVE İSİS..”

“We are absolutely bemused as to why anyone would target the club,” Dave Buckingham, media manager at Essex-based Heybridge Swifts reportedly said. “The whole situation is so surreal. I have even had a phone call from Essex Police officers asking me what we are playing at.”

“We’ve released an official statement making it clear we have not posted the flag of Islamic State willingly.” But club officials admit they now cannot access the rogue Twitter account.

Last month fellow Ryman One North side Chatham Town’s website was also reportedly hacked by extremists.

Hacking Wars

The hacking campaign by jihadi groups has prompted a strong response from other hackers. ISIS, which has carried out beheadings of journalists and the apparent burning alive of a Jordanian fighter pilot, uses social media channels such as Twitter as part of its propaganda strategy.

Last month Hacktivist group Anonymous claimed responsibility for disabling a France-based website as part of OpCharlieHedo, following the Paris shootings.

And Anonymous has made no secret of the fact that it would target social media accounts supporting extremism.

Earlier this week Anonymous issued a stark warning to followers of ISIS, threatening to hunt down and expose supporters. ISIS-affiliated Twitter and Facebook accounts have been taken down by Anonymous hacktivists.

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