US Central Command's Twitter Account Hacked, Filled With Pro-ISIS Messages

schwit1 writes with news that U.S. Central Command lost control of its Twitter account today, apparently to people sympathetic to the Islamic State militant group. CENTCOM's YouTube account was also compromised, and two videos related to ISIS were posted. Two U.S. defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the hacking was an embarrassment but did not appear to be a security threat. ... "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the CyberCaliphate continues its CyberJihad," the Centcom Twitter feed said after being hacked. The Twitter feed had several messages from hackers, including one telling American soldiers to "watch your back," and the YouTube account had two videos that appeared to be linked to Islamic State. The Twitter account published a list of generals and addresses associated with them, titled "Army General Officer Public Roster (by rank) 2 January 2014."

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[Anonymous Coward]

U.S. Central Command had a weak twitter password and looks like idiots today.

Before this gets even more overblown...

[barlevg]

...just remember this XKCD: http://xkcd.com/932/

Re:Hacked? Uh huh, sure...

[gstoddart]

The PFC appointed as Social Media Officer probably chose a weak password. Seriously, whenever I see a news article about a social media account being "hacked," I really wish journalists would understand these are just password-protected web services!

Except it doesn't matter.

Because, much like the DMCA made even incompetent security enshrined in law ... if you or I 'hacked' into someone's Twitter feed using these simple techniques, we would be facing serious criminal charges.

In the eyes of the law, this trivial form of 'hacking' is as serious as anything else.

I can't tell you how many websites which have a pre-determined list of "security questions" which almost anybody could get through public sources.

All you have to do is pretend to have some security and it's just as illegal.

The media doesn't need to differentiate between one form of hacking and another -- because the fscking law doesn't. Unless of course it's law enforcement doing it, and then it's apparently perfectly legal.