November 30, 2011 By Johnell Johnson
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigations helped to make a huge arrest, putting behind bars four Manila people accused of hacking numerous trunk lines of multiple U.S. telecommunication companies. One well-known target was AT&T.
The arrests were a joint effort with police in the Philippines. Members of the Bureau claim the suspects have connections to a terrorist group in Saudi Arabia.
This has been a long road for FBI agents. Since 1999, they have investigated the hacking of telecommunication companies in the United States. During this investigation which began in March 2011 by the FBI, agents say they discovered a paper trail of different bank transactions allegedly linking the local hackers to the cell in Saudi Arabia, whose activities include financing terrorist activities, The Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said in a statement.
The FBI had reportedly linked the local hacking group–via bank statements–to a “Saudi-based cell whose activities include financing terrorist activities.” The hackers allegedly routed the money directly to the militant group, which then paid the hackers a commission via Philippine banks.
Police said that the hackers appeared to be working for a group created by Muhammad Zamir, a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant group based in Southeast Asia. Zamir was arrested in 2007 in Italy by “FBI operatives. Agents also added that the FBI has evidence that Zamir’s group–not named, but which it said is based in Saudi Arabia–went on to fund the Mumbai terrorist attacks that occurred Nov. 26, 2008, killing 166 people. (Pakistani authorities have said that the attacks were funded by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants operating from inside Pakistan.)
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