Kuwait government worker 'was Islamic State group hacker'

Kuwait government worker 'was Islamic State group hacker'
A Kuwaiti civil servant has been accused of using his office and work computer to spread propaganda for the Islamic State group's 'electronic army' and hacking government websites.
1 min read
26 August, 2016
The Kuwaiti civil servant was said to have hacked for IS [Getty]

Kuwaiti police have arrested a government employee accused of spreading the Islamic State group's ideology online and hacking government websites, the interior ministry said.

Othman Zain Nayef, a 26-year-old Kuwaiti national, had "used his office and computer to spread the extremist ideology of the so-called Daesh [IS] terrorist organisation", the police said in a statement.

The ministry, quoted by state news agency KUNA, said he had allegedly confessed to being a member of the group's "electronic army" and to having hacked official websites "in friendly and sister states".

The ministry said it monitored Naif for months and his statements led to the arrest of two people in Iraq and one in Jordan on Thursday night. It says he used his work computer for the hacking.

Kuwaiti authorities announced last month having dismantled three IS cells plotting attacks, including a suicide bombing against a mosque with a mostly Shia congregation and hitting an interior ministry target.

An IS-linked suicide bomber killed 26 worshippers last year when he blew himself up in a mosque of Kuwait's Shia minority, in the worst such attack in the Gulf state's history.