U.S. Central Command had its social media accounts hacked today by apparent supporters of ISIS.
CENTCOM’s Twitter account has now been suspended. Their YouTube account shows two uploaded ISIS videos within the past hour: “O Soldiers of Truth Go Forth” and “Flames of War.”
White House press secretary Josh Earnest noted that he didn’t have many details since the hack just developed, but said “this is something that we’re obviously looking into and that we take seriously.”
“There’s a difference between a large data breach and the hacking of a Twtter account,” he added.
One of the messages posted on Twitter under the CENTCOM account said, “American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back.”
They also posted images of documents including contact information for military officers. “We can confirm that the U.S. Central Command Twitter account was compromised earlier today. CENTCOM is taking appropriate measure to address the matter,” a defense official told CNN. Officials also told the network it “does not appear” that any of the posted documents were classified.
An Anonymous Twitter account said it traced the hack to an account in Maryland. “FBI, you’re welcome,” the hacktivist group said while posting the associated IP addresses.
UPDATE 7 p.m. EST: Statement issued by CENTCOM.
Earlier today, U.S. Central Command’s Twitter and YouTube sites were compromised for approximately 30 minutes. These sites reside on commercial, non-Defense Department servers and both sites have been temporarily taken offline while we look into the incident further. CENTCOM’s operational military networks were not compromised and there was no operational impact to U.S. Central Command. CENTCOM will restore service to its Twitter and YouTube accounts as quickly as possible. We are viewing this purely as a case of cybervandalism.
In the meantime, our initial assessment is that no classified information was posted and that none of the information posted came from CENTCOM’s server or social media sites. Additionally, we are notifying appropriate DoD and law enforcement authorities about the potential release of personally identifiable information and will take appropriate steps to ensure any individuals potentially affected are notified as quickly as possible.
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