The Twitter and YouTube accounts for U.S. Central Command, which oversees the war against Islamic State militants, were hacked this afternoon. Pro-ISIS statements and images appeared on the Twitter account’s profile.
The first tweet was posted at 12:29 p.m. ET, with the words “AMERICAN SOLDIERS, WE ARE COMING, WATCH YOUR BACK. ISIS.” It included the hashtag #CyberCaliphate.
https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/554691728813207552
The profile’s image was replaced with a photo that includes the text “i love you isis.”
Interesting. I doubt they are ISIS… ISIS never calls themselves ISIS. “@ianbremmer: ISIS hacks @Centcom account. pic.twitter.com/EZqNvE6L3y”
— Ali H. Soufan (@Ali_H_Soufan) January 12, 2015
That image was later changed to Twitter’s default image of an egg.
A later Twitter message read, “ISIS is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base.”
https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/554694237397086208
Later messages included images of what were apparently spreadsheets labeled as containing the contact info and home addresses of retired U.S. army generals.
Centcom’s YouTube channel was also hacked, with two ISIS propaganda videos added to the page and the same “CyberCaliphate” banner posted.
The Defense Department confirmed the hacks.
“We can confirm that the U.S. Central Command Twitter and Youtube accounts were compromised earlier today,” a Defense Department spokesperson said in a statement. “We are taking appropriate measures to address the matter.”
The hacks occurred as President Obama was giving a speech about cybersecurity at the Federal Trade Commission.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest downplayed the hacks.
“There’s a significant difference over what is a large data breach and the hacking of a Twitter account,” Earnest said.
Steve Bucci, a foreign and national security policy expert at The Heritage Foundation, agreed that the hacks “are not a significant event.”
“Twitter and Facebook are public accounts with no special security on them, even when they belong to CENTCOM,” Bucci told The Daily Signal. “This could have been done by anyone, even a high school kid in a garage. While we don’t like it, and it warrants investigation, this is not a significant event beyond the embarrassment.”
