Through a series of messages posted on official ISIS social media accounts and Telegram channels, the terrorist group has announced the creation of a mega hacking unit called the United Cyber Caliphate (UCC).

The new group consists of the Cyber Caliphate Army (CCA), Daesh's main hacking unit, and other pro-ISIS groups that have carried out attacks supporting the terrorists' cause, such as the Sons Caliphate Army (SCA) and Kalacnikov.TN (KTN).

Earlier in January 2016, Cyber Caliphate Army also merged forces with Pro-Palestinian hacking group AnonGhost, a former Anonymous division from which the hacktivist group distanced itself.

ISIS hackers unite to improve their collective skills

The new hacking group is far from being considered a major threat since none of them has ever carried out anything more than simplistic website defacements and small data leaks.

At the start of March, the Cyber Caliphate Army (CCA) made a fool of themselves when they hacked an SEO company from India called Add Google Online and then bragged about hacking the real Google.

Nevertheless, with all the hackers joining their skills, more dangerous attacks are bound to follow. Since the start of April, security and cyber-intelligence firms like the SITE Intel Group have been tracking UCC's actions.

Since forming, UCC has been very active

Just in the past days, UCC hackers claimed they've hacked the US State Department and leaked info on 50 staff members, ran a mass defacement campaign against Australian websites, defaced the Russian Federal Customs Service, and leaked information on 18,000 employees of the Saudi Ministry of Defense and Aviation.

The group also ran a second mass defacement campaign using the "#KillCrusaders" tag and continued its anti-Christians campaign when it defaced the website of a Michigan church last week, leaving an ominous Jihadi message behind.

The biggest data breach since UCC formed also happened last week when the group posted the names and addresses of 3,602 of the "most important citizens of #NewYork and #Brooklyn," asking ISIS sympathizers to use the information and carry out lone wolf attacks.

Image announcing UCC posted on Telegram by ISIS members

The US is not impressed

Last year, ISIS had a more reputable cyber division called the Cyber Caliphate (CC) which managed to leak private details of many US servicemen.

These leaks got CC's leader, Junaid Hussain, on the US Army's most wanted list. Hussain was eventually killed in a drone strike in Syria last August.

Ever since then, the newly formed Cyber Caliphate Army never lived up to the name and reputation set by Hussain and his collaborators, one of which was arrested in February 2016.

After taking Hussain down, the US has been dominating the cyberspace and US officials have bragged about using cyber-attacks with "surprising" methods at the start of March, and again yesterday, when they said they're "dropping cyberbombs" on ISIS militants.