The Islamic State’s Caliphate Cyber Army has published a “kill list” of 36 police officers in Minnesota, according to a new report.
The names, addresses and contact details were posted on the encrypted messaging application Telegram, according to the report by Vocativ. The publication said the targets were scattered around the state, but that most were concentrated in the Twin Cities region.
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Minneapolis has seen dozens of Somalis leave or attempt to leave to fight with al-Shabaab, that country’s version of al Qaeda, since 2006. However, far fewer have sought to join the Islamic State. The two groups are often at odds.
It isn’t clear whether the Islamic State’s hacking division had a reason for targeting the officers in question, nor is it certain the list was even obtained through hacking, as some reports have suggested, rather than compiled through the use of public records.
However, it does fit with the group’s recent tactics. In August and November, groups affiliated with the Islamic State posted lists online of military personnel, intelligence officials and defense officials that contained similar information, calling on adherents to carry out attacks against them. The group largely used Twitter or free websites to disseminate the information.
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That task has become much more difficult for the organization recently. The hacking group Anonymous claimed in November that it had successfully eliminated more than 20,000 Twitter accounts affiliated with the Islamic State in a matter of weeks, and Twitter said in February that it had quietly taken down 125,000 on its own.
