Calgary family with house on ISIS hit list right to feel 'disconcerted,' terror expert says

A Calgary man who was recently informed that his house is on an ISIS hit list is justified in feeling disconcerted, says a counter-terrorism expert.

The 32-year-old man and his wifewere told by theRCMP that their home is among 151 Canadian contacts found on the list of some 8,300 names,emails or physical addresses around the globe.(The CBC respects the privacy and safety of those named on the list, and will not publish their names.)

"It's one thing to sit back and speak in probabilistic terms but of course if you're the person who's been named, it does tend to focus the mind," said David Harris, a lawyer and director of the intelligence program atInsignisResearch, a counter-terrorism and strategic studies firm based in Ottawa.

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RCMP told the couple that the name attached to their address was from a previous resident whose LinkedIn or Facebook account had been hacked.

Although there is no indication of an imminent threat, Mounties have been contacting Canadians on the list out of a "duty to inform."

"I don't believe they're going to go and attack a residential house, but who knows? Whoever was living here might have stirred some crap up with them," the man told CBC News.

Just in case, he's installing a security system.

Random quality provokes fear

Learning that one is on such a list can feel like a crisis, because it's not clear how seriously to take it, Harris says.

"We do know that a good deal of the terror violence that is feared when it comes to groups like the Islamic State and other such entitieshas to do with a certain random quality," he said.

Beyond telling people to be vigilant, there isn't much that Canadian authorities are in a position to do, Harris said.

"One of the challenges that we already face in Canada is that, I think it's fair to say, that our defensive arms security, intelligence, defence in general are being overwhelmed," he said.

The RCMP said last year that roughly 600 of its specialized operatives had to be reassigned from other work to tackle counter-radicalization and counter-terrorist files, according to Harris.

"We're getting a message in that kind of situation, and it's replicated in any number of other Western world jurisdictions," he said.

"So then you find these poor souls who've appeared on the lists of sinister organizations, and one wonders what sort of support, in real terms, they'll be able to look to."

The Canadian names on the ISIS hit list are mostly of women from small cities in Canada, although there are some from large cities too, according to the CBC's Adrienne Arsenault, who has obtained a copy of the list.

In analyzing the Canadian data, CBC News has learned that most email addresses (71 per cent) appear to have been hacked at some point, either in an old LinkedIn hack or one from Myspace or Adobe.

The Middle East Media Research Institutefirst uncovered the liston pro-ISIS accounts from social media platforms like Telegram.

The entity behind the list is called the United Cyber Caliphate, an umbrella group for pro-ISIS hackers. Most of their hit lists target U.S. drone operators, transit police or government employees.

But the latest list appears to contain a more random listing of civilians.

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