ISIS Hacks into the U.S Central Command Social Media Accounts

 

 

Hackers that are either in alliance or deeply involved in ISIS hacked into U.S. military’s Central Command on Monday posting propaganda videos, threats and some military documents.

The cyber attack affected the command’s Twitter and YouTube accounts which have been taken offline 40 minutes after the attack.

A Centcom spokesman confirmed their accounts were “compromised,” and said later that the accounts have been taken offline while the incident is investigated more. 

“CENTCOM’s operation military networks were not compromised and there was no operational impact to U.S. Central Command,” a military statement said. “CENTCOM will restore service to its Twitter and YouTube accounts as quickly as possible. We are viewing this purely as a case of cybervandalism.”

The command issued a statement also that no classified information was compromised as there was none in the affected social media accounts.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest also said the Obama administration is “examining and investigating the extent of the incident.”

“This is something we are obviously looking into and something we take seriously,” he told reporters Monday, adding he didn’t have a lot of information. He said that there is a “pretty significant difference” between “a large data breach and the hacking of a Twitter account.”

The first rogue tweet Monday was posted about 12:30 p.m. and the account was not suspended for about another 40 minutes. The background and profile photo of the Twitter account were both changed to show an apparent militant and the phrases “CyberCaliphate” and “i love you isis,” using one of the acronyms for the militant group.

“AMERICAN SOLDIERS, WE ARE COMING, WATCH YOUR BACK,” one tweet said.  

  

Peter Singer, a strategist and analyst with the New American Foundation in Washington, on the attacks on Monday said, “Let’s remember this is a social media account. This is not a military command and control network. This is not a network that moves classified or even non-classified internal information back and forth. Essentially what they did is for several minutes take control of the megaphone.”

He however said the incident does amount to a public relations victory for the Islamic State, even if they were not directly involved. Embarrassing the U.S. government “is a feather in their cap in terms of pulling off something that other groups have not been able to do, no matter how silly it is at the end of the day.”