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U.S. Central Command Twitter Account Suspended After Apparent ISIS Hack
The Twitter account for the top U.S. military headquarters responsible for wars in the Middle East was hacked by a group identifying itself as the “Cyber Caliphate” of the Islamic State group Monday.
U.S. Central Command’s Twitter feed and YouTube page were suspended shortly after 1 p.m. ET, but not before it put out a string of tweets that included what appear to be plans for attacking North Korea and China, personal contact information for U.S. service members, and threatening messages aimed at those currently waging war in Iraq and Syria.
The hackers also replaced the profile images on both accounts with a black-and-white figure masked in an Islamic extremist headdress next to the iconic flag of the group.
“AMERICAN SOLDIERS, WE ARE COMING, WATCH YOUR BACK!,” one of the first tweets read, using one of the common alternative names for the group, along with ISIL and the Arabic acronym, “Daish.”
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“ISIS is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base,” read another, including a picture of two women in military fatigues working at what looks like a command center at a forward operating base.
Another tweet included an extended message, saying “the CyberCaliphate under the auspices of ISIS continues its CyberJihad.” The hack is in retribution for U.S.-led military action in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, it stated.
“We won’t stop! we know everything about you, your wives and children. U.S. soldiers! we’re watching you!”
A U.S. defense official speaking on the condition of anonymity confirmed to NBC News that the account had clearly been hacked.
U.S. Central Command issued a statement about four hours after their Twitter and YouTube pages were suspended. The sites were only compromised for 30 minutes, the command said, and did not involve any classified information leaks.
"These sites reside on commercial, non-Defense Department servers and both sites have been temporarily taken offline while we look into the incident further," the headquarters said. "CENTCOM's operational military networks were not compromised and there was no operational impact to U.S. Central Command."
Among the other tweets included phone numbers and email addresses for top staff at the 10 main U.S. Army component commands, including U.S. Army Europe and U.S. Army Central Command.
The last tweets included what appear to be PowerPoint slides for nuclear facilities in North Korea and a plan for surveillance and reconnaissance in and around China.
It's unclear whether any of the tweets include actual hacked information from U.S. military computers. Some of the images and spreadsheets appear to be public source information available through a Google search. The PowerPoint slides, for example, also include the logo for the Lincoln Laboratory at MIT.
U.S. Central Command is based in Tampa Bay, Florida near the headquarters for U.S. Special Operations Command.
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