In a last week statement by the Philippines police's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), it was revealed that the law enforcement officials in Philippines, together with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), busted a gang of four alleged hackers in Manila; and that the hackers supposedly have links with a terrorist group based in Saudi Arabia.

The CIDG statement further elaborated that the Saudi Arabia-based terrorist group that paid the four people - who were arrested on Wednesday - was the same as the one which, as per the FBI's earlier identification, had a hand in funding the 2008 coordinated attacks on Mumbai, India, in which 164 people had died and more than 300 had been wounded.

The statement by the CIDG also revealed that close on the heels of the last-week complaint from AT&T, about a hack of its system, the investigations by the FBI agents have led to the find of a "paper trail" of a number of bank transactions which seemingly connect the local hackers to the Saudi Arabia group that allegedly funds terrorist activities.

According to the information shared by the Philippines police, the suspects apparently received payments from a Jemaah Islamiyah member called Muhammad Zamir, for hacking the trunk-line of AT&T - a hack that led to US$2million loss - and a number of other telecom firms.

Going by the CIDG statement, the revenue resulting from the hack was redirected to the account of the terrorists, from whom the Filipino hackers received payments on a commission basis via local banks.