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

Posted by Soulskill on Monday January 12, 2015 @08:19AM from the your-tax-dollars-at-work dept.

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."

1 of 128 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Hacked? Uh huh, sure... by ErichTheRed · 2015-01-12 08:35 · Score: 5, Interesting

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!
Celebrities' naked pictures and Twitter feeds get hacked because they have simple passwords, not because some genius hacker spends months looking for an exploit on their personal phone and the opportunity to introduce it. And even "security question" based password resets don't work when a celebrity will choose answers that anyone can find in 100 gossip rags.