This screen grab made Monday, Jan. 12, 2015 shows the front page of the U.S. Central Command twitter account after is was hacked
Hackers supporting Islamic militants took over the Twitter and YouTube accounts of a major U.S. military command Monday (yesterday in Macau), in what the Pentagon called an annoying prank that did not breach military networks or access classified data.
The hacker group, calling itself CyberCaliphate, was already under FBI investigation for incursions into the Twitter feeds or websites of media outlets in New Mexico and Maryland, prompting officials to question whether the group has any real affiliation with the Islamic State militants. The U.S. and other partner nations have been launching airstrikes against Islamic State insurgents and locations across Iraq and Syria since last summer.
U.S. Central Command Twitter accounts in English and Arabic and the YouTube site were quickly removed from the web by military officials. They said they were working to get the sites back online as quickly as possible.
FBI spokesman Joshua Campbell said the bureau is investigating the Central Command Twitter and YouTube breaches and is working with the Pentagon to determine the scope of the incident.
The Central Command Twitter site was filled with threats that said “American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back.” Other postings appeared to list names, phone numbers and personal email addresses of military personnel as well as PowerPoint slides and maps.
Most of the material was labeled “FOUO,” which means “For Official Use Only,” but none of it appeared to be classified or sensitive information. U.S. Central Command said that none of the information and documents posted on the hacked site were from the command’s Internet servers or social media sites.
The breach only affected the Twitter and YouTube sites, which reside on commercial, non-Defense Department Internet servers. U.S. Central Command said its operational and military networks were not compromised, but officials are notifying law enforcement about the possible release of personal information that was posted on the Twitter site.
One of the documents appeared to be slides developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, a federally funded research and development center focused on national security. The slides appeared to depict what it called “scenarios” for conflict with North Korea and China. It’s not clear where the documents came from or how long ago they might have been taken, since some of the information was as much as a year old.
“This is little more than a prank or vandalism. It’s inconvenient and it’s an annoyance. But that’s all it is,” said Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. “It in no way compromises our operations in any way, shape or form.”
Warren said Pentagon officials are in contact with Twitter and YouTube to ensure that military passwords and other security for such public websites are adequate.
The tweets came shortly after U.S. Central Command posted its own tweets about the U.S. and partner nations continuing to attack Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria and one repeating a report that said France will deploy an aircraft carrier to the fight. Lolita C. Baldor, Washington , AP
No Comments