Iraqi authorities have announced the discovery of a network using social media to extort the security institution, officers, and personnel. Yahya Rasul, the military spokesman for Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani, stated in a press release that "investigations have identified elements of a network within the institution that uses social media (pages under pseudonyms) to extort the security institution and defame its symbols."
Rasul added that an investigative committee headed by the Minister of Interior, with the participation of the head of the National Security Agency and the military inspector of the Ministry of Defense, has decided to "refer the officers involved in this illegal act to the military, and to continue the necessary legal procedures and complete the investigations against them."
The statement did not disclose the names or ranks of the implicated officers at the time of this report. Almost daily, the Ministry of Interior announces the arrest of individuals engaged in electronic extortion, as well as the rescue of victims from paying extortion amounts; however, extortion operations remain notably widespread in Iraq.
This incident coincides with activists on social media sharing images of "compromising" clips of the dean of the College of Computer Science and Information Technology at the University of Basra, showing him in "inappropriate" situations with a student in his office at the college.
