Plan B Forum

EXCLUSIVE
Islamic State has hacked the personal information of Australian Defence Force employees and their relatives, a Victorian MP, and several public servants, and urged home-grown terrorists to attack them, in a chilling online breach.



Many of the Australians whose mobile phone numbers, email addresses, online passwords, and home suburbs were published had no idea their safety had been compromised until contacted by Fairfax Media on Wednesday.


Islamic State bragged for hours on social media about the dump of information relating to more than 1400 people, most of them supposedly US military personnel, and accompanied it with a terrifying call-to-arms.

But Australian authorities were caught on their heels, with Defence personnel and the Victorian MP among those who were unaware of the hack.

This is despite Australia's most senior Islamic State militant, former Melbourne man and terror recruiter Neil Prakash, posting links to the information on social media about 4.30am on Wednesday.

A message from the Islamic State Hacking Division, which accompanied the spreadsheet of personal details, warned: "know that we are in your emails and computer systems, watching and recording your every move.

"We have your names and addresses, we are in your ... social media accounts.

"We are extracting confidential data and passing on your personal information to the soldiers of the khilafah [caliphate], who soon with the permission of Allah will strike at your necks in your own lands!"

Fairfax Media found the details of at least eight Australians in the list, including a mother who is employed by the ADF, a Victorian MP, employees or former employees of NSW Health, and an Australian National Audit Office employee.

The brother of a Defence force employee and a former Army reservist were also compromised.

Fairfax Media will not publish the names of those on the list.

Half of those whose information had been leaked – including the MP, a Defence employee, the former reservist, and the relative of a Defence employee – confirmed they had first learnt about the breach when contacted by Fairfax Media.

The numbers published on the spreadsheet were used to contact them.

The Victorian MP said he had contacted the security detail tasked with protecting parliamentarians and was concerned about his family's welfare.

"I'm completely at a loss," he said.

"What do I do? The police probably know less than you and I."

One of the Defence employees was home with her children when she was alerted to the breach. She was shocked she had not been contacted by her employer.

The brother of a Defence employee was equally staggered that he had not been contacted by authorities.

"I've just been thinking about whether I should be calling someone," he said.

"I would think they would have their finger on the pulse a bit more.

"It's not as if they don't have my number."

Prakash, a former attendee of the Al-Furqan Islamic Centre in Springvale South, urged his Twitter followers to share the hacked information, also tweeting "cyber war got em shook!"


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"What do I do? The police probably know less than you and I."