The hacker group appears to be the same one that is under FBI investigation for hijacking the websites or Twitter feeds of media outlets in the last month, including a Maryland television station and a New Mexico newspaper.
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, suggesting the hackers did not breach classified material.
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.
“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.
U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, said the hack has him “very concerned about the potential safety risk this hacking poses to our servicemembers.”
Turner is also president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
“The issue here is not social media. The issue is what other systems may have been compromised,” he said.
Donna Schlagheck, a Wright State University terrorism expert and chair of the political science department, said she was expecting “the other shoe to drop” after the group Anonymous declared it would shut down Islamic jihadist social media accounts after the Paris attack that killed 12 people at the offices of the weekly satire newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
The reported hacking Monday into the U.S. Central Command’s Twitter and YouTube accounts was “interesting” and “unexpected,” she said.
“We’re a much bigger target than Anonymous,” she said.
US soldiers, we’re watching you
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.
The hackers titled the Central Command Twitter page “CyberCaliphate” with an underline that said “i love you isis.” And the broader message referred to the ongoing airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria and threatened, “We broke into your networks and personal devices and know everything about you. You’ll see no mercy infidels. ISIS is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base.”
It added: “US soldiers! We’re watching you!”
The intrusion on the military Twitter account carried the same logo, CyberCaliphate name and photo that appeared on the Albuquerque Journal’s website in late December when one of its stories was hacked. And earlier this month, it appeared that the same hackers breached the Journal’s Twitter account and also took over the website and Twitter feed of WBOC-TV in Salisbury, Maryland.
The FBI at the time acknowledged it was looking into the Albuquerque case, and WBOC said it was also in contact with the agency.
“This is something we’re obviously looking into, and something we take seriously,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. But he cautioned against comparisons to the broader hack attack against Sony. “There’s a pretty significant difference between what is a large data breach and the hacking of a Twitter account,” he said.
The military suspended the Central Command Twitter site and terminated the YouTube site. This is not the first time that U.S. government websites or other accounts have been hacked. It was not clear whether the site was attacked by the insurgent group or by sympathizers.
The hack has not caused any changes at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, according to officials.
Marie Vanover, director of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Installation Public Affairs says the base monitors threats from social media sites.
“Our Information Assurance experts follow best practices already established for known threats/vulnerabilities. They periodically provide training to organizations and have an on-going awareness campaign that provides users with important tips and current trends. As things evolve, we provide protective awareness to base personnel to help them protect their social media accounts,” she said.
Vanover says Wright-Patterson has not told civilian or military employees to take any extra precautions given the statements that were made on the Central Command’s Twitter account.
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