A hacker group has claimed responsibility for bringing down the Damascus Securities Exchange (DSE) website after finding ISIS members in government-held territory. Project Viridium says that they discovered the Islamists in a web forum and used malware to obtain their identities and locations.
According to an anonymous spokesman for the group, they contacted Syrian military authorities two weeks ago and gave them the information they had obtained, but took action against the DSE today in retaliation for the regime’s failure to act.
Dear Assad. If you don't act upon our ISIS member location tips we will leak your Entire stock market database. #ProjectViridium #PV
— Project Viridium (@ProjectViridium) August 26, 2014
The group claims to have “about a dozen” members, some with Arabic language skills. Although their story has not been independently verified, a hack might be embarrassing for the troubled DSE, which has made its contingency plans for a possible US-led strike on Syria very public.
Syrian stock exchange pwned.
Reason: failure to take action against ISIS members.
P.S fix your fucking shit. pic.twitter.com/d89pwekYwx
— Project Viridium (@ProjectViridium) August 26, 2014
Project Viridium says they exploited a known hole in the Windows version of the Apache web server to take control of the DSE website, www.dse.sy, in about two minutes. Then they tweeted a screenshot of their hack and issued a statement through Doxbin which has since been deleted. Here is a screenshot:
Through Direct Messages on Twitter, the group tells me that they are sharing their information with law enforcement agencies in an effort to combat the Islamic State. Global outrage against the group has hit fever pitch after James Foley, an American reporter they held hostage, was executed on camera last week in a gruesome beheading.
This post will be updated if we develop more information.