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Religious hacker defaces escort websites

The Moroccan hacker has attacked over 100 websites, citing religious reasons, and claims to have access to user data.

Michelle Starr Science editor
Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
Michelle Starr
elsurveillance.jpg

The message with which ElSurveillance replaces the homepage of the websites he targets.

Screenshot by Michelle Starr/CNET

A hacker going by the name ElSurveillance has targeted at least 26 websites in June alone for defacement, most of which offer escort services, although he also managed to scoop up a motorcycle enthusiast and some real estate websites. According to an interview with website Data Breaches in December of last year, he is citing religious reasons.

"I have been running an operation under the hashtag #EscortsOffline against the escorts website and agencies, because I strongly believe that our bodies are gifted from Allah (God) to us to look after and not to destroy, and I always hated the idea of people selling their bodies for money," he said. So far, the hashtag has not gained much traction.

His campaign has attacked nearly 200 websites since January 2015, replacing their front pages with a religious message. According to Softpedia, ElSurveillance is also planning to leak over 100,000 user records from the websites he has defaced.