The Islamic State's Cyber Caliphate group has hacked more than 54,000 Twitter accounts, leaking user credentials including passwords. According to analysts, these recent developments intensify the global cyber war.

Cyber Caliphate was started by ISIS member Junaid Hussain, a British citizen from Birmingham who led the group. Its main purpose is to compromise accounts to spread ISIS propaganda. The hacking this time is in retaliation for a drone attack that the United States carried out in a joint operation with Britain in August that killed the cyber group's leader.

"We need years to publish what we have. We will raise our flag in the heart of Europe," the group said in a Tweet before the account was suspended, which was followed by a post that led to the database of the stolen information.

A security agency reportedly pointed this out to Twitter to implement necessary measures.

The extremists' Cyber Caliphate also briefly took control of a Pentagon Twitter account in January. Since Hussain's death, the hacking group kept a low profile online, but after what seems to be a period of gathering data, the group reemerged and announced its return on Twitter.

The hacked accounts mostly belong to individuals in Saudi Arabia, but it is also believed that some of the accounts belong to British citizens.

"I am horrified at how they got hold of my details,"says a half-British victim in Saudi Arabia in an interview with The Daily Express.

On top of that, the extremist group's cyber division also published personal details on Twitter, including the phone numbers of CIA, FBI and NSA heads.

"It is very worrying that terrorists are gathering data in this way," says cybersecurity expert Tony McDowell. 

Photo: Andreas Eldh | Flickr