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

Posted by Soulskill on 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."

8 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. Other title sugestion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

  2. Before this gets even more overblown... by barlevg · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

  3. BBC News - Suicide Bombers Go On Strike by Tokolosh · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oldie, but goodie:

    Muslim suicide bombers in Britain are set to begin a three-day strike on Monday in a dispute over the number of virgins they are entitled to in the afterlife. Emergency talks with Al Qaeda have so far failed to produce an agreement.

    The unrest began last Tuesday when Al Qaeda announced that the number of virgins a suicide bomber would receive after his death would be cut by 25% this February from 72 to 54. A spokesman said increases in recent years in the number of suicide bombings has resulted in a shortage of virgins in the afterlife.

    The suicide bombers' union, the British Organization of Occupational Martyrs (or B.O.O.M.) responded with a statement saying the move was unacceptable to its members and called for a strike vote. General Secretary Abdullah Amir told the press, "Our members are literally working themselves to death in the cause of Jihad. We don't ask for much in return but to be treated like this is like a kick in the teeth" Speaking from his shed in Tipton in the West Midlands, Al Qaeda chief executive Haisheet Mapants explained, "I sympathize with our workers concerns but Al Qaeda is simply not in a position to meet their demands.

    They are simply not accepting the realities of modern-day Jihad in a competitive marketplace. Thanks to Western depravity, there is now a chronic shortage of virgins in the afterlife. It's a straight choice between reducing expenditures or laying people off. I don't like cutting benefits but I'd hate to have to tell 3,000 of my staff that they won't be able to blow themselves up.

    Spokespersons for the union in the North East of England, Ireland, Wales and the entire Australian continent stated that the change would not hurt their membership as there are so few virgins in their areas anyway.

    According to some industry sources, the recent drop in the number of suicide bombings has been attributed to the emergence of Scottish singing star, Susan Boyle. Many Muslim Jihadists now know what a virgin looks like and have reconsidered their benefit packages.

    --
    Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
  4. Hacked? Uh huh, sure... by ErichTheRed · · 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.

    1. Re:Hacked? Uh huh, sure... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  5. Merciful? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful...

    You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

    1. Re:Merciful? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Reminds of The Onion post Sep. 11th: http://www.theonion.com/articl...

      God Angrily Clarifies 'Don't Kill' Rule

      NEW YORKâ"Responding to recent events on Earth, God, the omniscient creator-deity worshipped by billions of followers of various faiths for more than 6,000 years, angrily clarified His longtime stance against humans killing each other Monday.

      "Look, I don't know, maybe I haven't made myself completely clear, so for the record, here it is again," said the Lord, His divine face betraying visible emotion during a press conference near the site of the fallen Twin Towers. "Somehow, people keep coming up with the idea that I want them to kill their neighbor. Well, I don't. And to be honest, I'm really getting sick and tired of it. Get it straight. Not only do I not want anybody to kill anyone, but I specifically commanded you not to, in really simple terms that anybody ought to be able to understand."

      Worshipped by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike, God said His name has been invoked countless times over the centuries as a reason to kill in what He called "an unending cycle of violence."

      "I don't care how holy somebody claims to be," God said. "If a person tells you it's My will that they kill someone, they're wrong. Got it? I don't care what religion you are, or who you think your enemy is, here it is one more time: No killing, in My name or anyone else's, ever again."

      The press conference came as a surprise to humankind, as God rarely intervenes in earthly affairs. As a matter of longstanding policy, He has traditionally left the task of interpreting His message and divine will to clerics, rabbis, priests, imams, and Biblical scholars. Theologians and laymen alike have been given the task of pondering His ineffable mysteries, deciding for themselves what to do as a matter of faith. His decision to manifest on the material plane was motivated by the deep sense of shock, outrage, and sorrow He felt over the Sept. 11 violence carried out in His name, and over its dire potential ramifications around the globe.

      "I tried to put it in the simplest possible terms for you people, so you'd get it straight, because I thought it was pretty important," said God, called Yahweh and Allah respectively in the Judaic and Muslim traditions. "I guess I figured I'd left no real room for confusion after putting it in a four-word sentence with one-syllable words, on the tablets I gave to Moses. How much more clear can I get?"

      "But somehow, it all gets twisted around and, next thing you know, somebody's spouting off some nonsense about, 'God says I have to kill this guy, God wants me to kill that guy, it's God's will,'" God continued. "It's not God's will, all right? News flash: 'God's will' equals 'Don't murder people.'"

      Worse yet, many of the worst violators claim that their actions are justified by passages in the Bible, Torah, and Qur'an.

      "To be honest, there's some contradictory stuff in there, okay?" God said. "So I can see how it could be pretty misleading. I admit itâ"My bad. I did My best to inspire them, but a lot of imperfect human agents have misinterpreted My message over the millennia. Frankly, much of the material that got in there is dogmatic, doctrinal bullshit. I turn My head for a second and, suddenly, all this stuff about homosexuality gets into Leviticus, and everybody thinks it's God's will to kill gays. It absolutely drives Me up the wall."

      God praised the overwhelming majority of His Muslim followers as "wonderful, pious people," calling the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks rare exceptions.

      "This whole medieval concept of the jihad, or holy war, had all but vanished from the Muslim world in, like, the 10th century, and with good reason," God said. "There's no such thing as a holy war, only unholy ones. The vast majority of Muslims in this world reject the murderous actions of these radical extremists, just like the vast majority of Christi

  6. Re:Allah is Proud by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's always good when terrorist groups act like 13-year old haxxor boys.

    I hope their god is proud of them.

    Yeah, joke's on them. Those script kiddies are the 72 virgins!