As part of its cyber warfare operations, British spy agency MI6 has hacked into an online Al Qaeda magazine and replaced “bomb-making” instructions with recipes for cupcakes, a media report said.
The operation was launched by MI6 in an attempt to disrupt efforts by the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to recruit “lone-wolf” terrorists with a new English-language magazine, the Daily Telegraph reported.
When followers tried to download the 67-page colour magazine, instead of instructions about how to “Make a bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom” by “The AQ Chef”, they were greeted with garbled computer code.
The code, which had been inserted into the original magazine by the British intelligence hackers, was actually a Web page of recipes for “The Best Cupcakes in America”, put out by the Ellen DeGeneres Show.
It said: “The little cupcake is big again. Self-contained and satisfying, it summons memories of childhood even as it’s updated for today’s sweet-toothed hipsters.”
It included a recipe for the Mojito Cupcake and the Rocky Road Cupcake.
By contrast, the original magazine featured a recipe showing how to make a lethal pipe bomb using sugar, match heads and a miniature lightbulb, attached to a timer. —PTI