According to mailonline,The social media accounts of the US military's Central Command in Florida appear to have been hacked by ISIS sympathizers - posting threatening messages against troops, their families and the home addresses of 4-star US generals. The cyber attack began at around 12.30pm on Monday when a message was posted to CentCom's Twitter account reading, 'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the CyberCaliphate continues its CyberJihad.'
The hackers also changed the photograph used on the the Twitter cover page to a masked jihadi with an underline that said 'i love you isis.' The security breach, which occurred while President Obama was giving a speech on cyber security, saw death threats made against American soldiers and war game scenarios for conflicts with North Korean and Iran leaked online.
The CentCom YouTube account also had two propaganda videos for Islamic State uploaded. One of the ominous posts slapped on the Twitter feed read 'American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back' while another warned, 'We won't stop! We know everything about you, your wives and children.'
Most of the information leaked is readily available online according to the Washington Post, but the breach is still embarrassing for CentCom which is in overall command of the US-led coalition military campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Indeed, while it is not clear if the attack was carried out by ISIS or in fact was another cyber assault linked to North Korea, it does represent a public relations victory of sorts for either one. US officials confirmed that the U.S. Central Command Twitter account and its YouTube account were suspended 40 minutes after being compromised at around 1.09pm. A White House official told DailyMail.com Monday afternoon on condition of anonymity that the incident is 'a complete embarrassment that has the EOP [Executive Office of the President] freaking out.' 'We've obviously had trouble fighting cyber-skirmishes in the last few months,' the official said, alluding to the Sony cyber-intrusion that the administration has blamed on North Korea's rogue government. 'Only this one is directly on point because of military operations. Beyond that you're going to have to ask the Pentagon.' A Pentagon official confirmed that the attack was taken seriously 'at the highest levels.' 'This is not something we're messing around with,' the official said. White House press secretary Josh Earnest attempted to downplay the incident.
'We're still examining and investigating the extent of this incident, but I don't have any information beyond that,' he told reporters on Monday at the White House. 'This is something we are obviously looking into and something we take seriously,' Earnest added, while providing reporters with no meaningful details about the government's response.There is a 'significant difference between what is a large data breach and the hacking of a twitter account,' he insisted. While the attack was occurring President Obama was giving a speech on cybersecurity in which he discussed the hack of Sony pictures. He used his speech to remind his audience that the cyber attack, reportedly by North Korea, reminded the United States of the 'enormous vulnerabilities for us as a nation and for our economy.''If we're going to be connected, we've got to be protected,' Obama said during his speech at the Federal Trade Commission headquarters.
Pentagon spokesman Army Colonel Steve Warren said the Defense Department 'views this as little more than a prank, or as vandalism.' 'It's inconvenient, it's an annoyance but in no way is any sensitive or classified information compromised,' Warren told a press briefing.
While it was not clear that any Pentagon network had been compromised, it did appear that the hackers were successful in temporarily gaining control of Central Command’s Twitter feed, which is controlled through a password.
The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, Republican Michael McCaul of Texas, called the incident "severely disturbing."
"Assaults from cyber-jihadists will become more common unless the administration develops a strategy for appropriately responding to these cyberattacks, including those like the North Korea attack against Sony," McCaul said.
The compromised Twitter account also published a list of generals and addresses associated with them, titled 'Army General Officer Public Roster (by rank) 2 January 2014.'
In addition a pastebin link attached to the CentCom Twitter account contains a series of what appeared to be classified and sensitive Pentagon documents.
Most of the leaked 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 information.
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.
The attack, which the hackers declared to be part of its 'CyberJihad', changed the cover photo of CentCom to that of a hooded ISIS terrorist.
'You'll see no mercy infidels. ISIS is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base. With Allah's permission we are in CENTCOM now,' one of the the post reads.
It added: '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.
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