social media accounts of the U.S. military's Central Command on
Monday, posting threatening messages and propaganda videos, along with
some military documents.
The command's Twitter and YouTube accounts were eventually taken
offline, but not before a string of tweets and the release of military
documents, some of which listed contact information for senior
military personnel. A Centcom spokesman confirmed their accounts were
"compromised," and that the military was investigating.
Virtually all of the documents posted appear to already have been
publicly available online, but the incident is nevertheless
embarrassing to the U.S. military. Centcom oversees the U.S. military
campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and frequently
posts videos of airstrikes on its social media accounts.
The first rogue tweet 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.
The YouTube and Twitter accounts of U.S. Central Command were
suspended after apparent hacking by Islamic State sympathizers.
(Reuters)
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest 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 Centcom YouTube page also appeared to have been hacked, with two
Islamic State propaganda videos added to the page and the same
"CyberCaliphate" banner posted. The YouTube account was eventually
"terminated due to repeated or severe violations" of YouTube's
guidelines, the website said.
Central Command also maintains Facebook accounts, but it appears they
were not affected.
It is not clear whether the hackers are actually with the Islamic
State, sympathizers with the militants, or simply pulling a prank on
the Pentagon. But J.M. Berger, an analyst and non-resident fellow with
the Brookings Institution, said there is reason to believe it could be
someone affiliated directly with the Islamic State.
"ISIS has a team of hackers who are very deeply involved in ISIS the
organization," said Berger, author of the forthcoming book "ISIS: The
State of Terror."
"They have been practicing and recruiting for a while, and this has
been going on for months and months," Berger said.
But analysts added that just because the Islamic State hacked two
social media accounts, it does not mean they threatened classified
computer networks. Other hacker organizations, like the Syrian
Electronic Army, have seized control of websites, and a group using
the same "CyberCaliphate" name and photo seen in the hack against
Centcom on Monday hacked the Twitter accounts of the Albuquerque
Journalin New Mexico and the WBOC TV stationin Salisbury, Md., last
week.
"Let's remember this is a social media account," said Peter Singer, a
strategist and analyst with the New American Foundation in Washington,
of the attacks on Monday. "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."
But Singer 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."
--Washington Post
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