Cyber Jihad Movement

Overview

The Cyber Jihad Movement (CJM), romanized as Ḥarakat al-Jihād al-Sībiranī, is a Sunni Islamist hacking group that declared allegiance to Al-Qaeda in August 2025. The group operates primarily through its public Telegram channel and has positioned itself as a participant in broader Islamist hacktivist campaigns targeting Israeli, American, and European digital infrastructure.

Emergence and Early Activity

The group first emerged during the 2025 Iran–Israel conflict, aligning itself with Iranian-linked hacktivist campaigns while pursuing its own pro-Palestine agenda. According to cybersecurity firms, CJM was among several hacktivist groups coordinating denial-of-service and website defacement attacks in response to major escalations in that conflict. Analysts at Customer Value Partners (CVP) noted that the group's activity extended to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks targeting U.S. institutions in mid-2025.

In June 2025, the group claimed responsibility for taking offline the official website of Israeli telecommunications company Bezeq International via a DDoS attack on June 18. That same month, the Israeli news website Times of Israel was reported to have been taken offline in a collaborative DDoS attack involving CJM and another group, Team Fearless, though the exact date of that incident was not confirmed.

Pledge of Allegiance and Expansion

On August 22, 2025, the Cyber Jihad Movement formally announced its pledge of allegiance to Al-Qaeda via its public Telegram channel. Around the same period, the group declared that its cyber operations would extend beyond Israel and the United States to include European governments and institutions, under the codename Operation Storm.

In September 2025, CJM launched what it described as a coordinated cyber campaign targeting entities it characterized as "hostile targets," though specific details of that campaign were not fully disclosed in available reporting.

2026 Activity

On March 4, 2026, amid the Afghanistan–Pakistan war and the 2026 Iran war, the Cyber Jihad Movement released a public statement urging Muslims worldwide to join its global cyber jihad. In that statement, the group vowed to assist the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the Pakistani Taliban against the Pakistani government, while also expressing support for pro-Iran hacking groups operating against Israel and the United States.

Tactics and Methods

CJM's recorded operations have primarily involved DDoS attacks and website defacements. The group has demonstrated a willingness to collaborate with other hacktivist entities, as evidenced by its joint operation with Team Fearless against the Times of Israel. Its stated targets have spanned telecommunications, news media, and government institutions across multiple countries.

Organizational Context

The Cyber Jihad Movement operates within a broader ecosystem of Islamist and pro-Palestine hacktivist groups that became more active during the 2025 Iran–Israel conflict. Its formal affiliation with Al-Qaeda, announced publicly in August 2025, distinguishes it from many other hacktivist collectives that operate without declared ties to internationally designated terrorist organizations.