CENTCOM's social media accounts hacked by ISIS supporters
U.S. Central Command's Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised by ISIS-supporting hackers on Monday, with pro-Islamic State entries appearing on their Twitter account for about 30 minutes.
The Pentagon says no classified material was posted but that the names and addresses of some soldiers were published.
Centcom officials said military networks were not compromised during the hacking and that they are viewing the incident “purely as a case of cybervandalism.”
"CENTCOM's operational military networks were not compromised and there was no operational impact to U.S. Central Command," officials said in a statement.
"These sites reside on commercial, non-Defense Department servers and both sites have been temporarily taken offline while we look into the incident further," Centcom said.
The hackers, who have not been identified, posted official documents on Centcom's Twitter feed, including contact information for service members, plans for an engagement with China and North Korea, and one on the use of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets.
Some of the documents appeared to be from password protected sites, and did not appear to be publicly available, according to Defense One.
Centcom said it was their initial assessment that no classified information was posted, and no information posted came from Centcom internally.
"Additionally, we are notifying appropriate DoD and law enforcement authorities about the potential release of personally identifiable information and will take appropriate steps to ensure any individuals potentially affected are notified as quickly as possible," they said.
Centcom said it would restore service to its Twitter and YouTube accounts as "quickly as possible."
This is a whitewash. If hackers were able to penetrate "password protected sites," the hack went beyond tapping into the "commercial servers" of Twitter and YouTube. It still may not be a serious breach in the sense that classified information is at risk, but if the hackers were able to get contact information of soldiers, that should worry the Pentagon more than teenagers playing around with CENTCOM's Twitter account.
The FBI is investigating and will probably be able to track down the cyber-vandals – as long as they're not professionals working for the Islamic State. That's a prospect that should chill our military, whose networks are among the best protected in the world, but not immune to breaches from determined foes.