A British jihadist fighting with the Islamic State in Iraq is feared to be behind a cyber plot to empty British bank accounts to fund terrorism in the Middle East.
Junaid Hussain, 20, escaped to Syria last year while on police bail, and has been posting extremist messages on social media pledging to conquer the world and kill infidels.
Hussain, who is originally from Birmingham, is pictured online posing with a scarf over his face and a rifle in his hands, and tweets behind the alias Abu Hussain al-Britani.
He was jailed in 2012 for stealing personal information from Tony Blair, and is thought to be putting his hacking skills to use adding to the militants’ huge war chest.
According to reports in the Daily Mirror, British financial institutions are aware of the attacks and working overtime to prevent their customers’ funds being extracted.
A source told the paper: ‘The hackers are targeting the accounts of the rich and famous, VIP clients of banks and big businesses.
‘This is an international fraud on an unprecedented scale and the result could be a bottomless pit of money to fund their campaign of terror.’
Hussain has not directly mentioned hacking in his stream of Islamist posts, but a fellow fighter boasted of being bought pizza using celebrity credit card details acquired by a jihadist hacker.
When the fanatics swept across Iraq this summer, conquering huge swathes of the country, they also captured a central bank in Mosul, which they looted for hundreds of millions of pounds.
The huge windfall immediately made them the world’s richest terrorist organisation, and they have been expanding their financial clout as they storm across the country.
A spokesman for the British Bankers’ Association told the MailOnline that banks are always vigilant against attacks from all over the world, launched by anyone from petty criminals to major organisations.
A spokesman said: ‘Protecting their customers’ money is the banks’ number one priority. That’s why they spend hundreds of millions of pounds a year hiring cyber security experts to combat these kind of threats.
‘If you as a customer fall victim to fraud through no fault of your own you are almost certain to have your money quickly reimbursed.’
A spokesman for GCHQ, the government’s intelligence and security organisation, declined to comment on attacks from the Islamic State.
