Online social media accounts belonging to the US military's central command were hacked in an apparent attack by sympathisers of the Islamic State, the militant group in control of parts of Iraq and Syria.
Messages were posted on the Twitter and YouTube accounts of “CentCom,” which controls US military operations in the Middle East, by individuals claiming to be working for the Islamic State and a “Cyber Caliphate,” a reference to the religious state established by the group.
Central command oversees the US-led military air strike campaign against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The Pentagon confirmed that the websites were compromised and that it was “taking appropriate measures.”
The hack, coming less than a week after the terror attacks in Paris, happened shortly after President Barack Obama delivered a speech on cyber security in Washington DC.
Eight messages were posted on Central Command’s Twitter account over almost an hour from around 12.20pm US time, threatening American soldiers that ISIS was coming and to “watch your back.”
The background and profile photographs on the Twitter account were changed to show what looked like a masked fighter and the phrases “Cyber Caliphate” and “i love you isis,” referring to one of the acronyms used for the group.
One message said: “We won’t stop! We know everything about you, your wives and children.” Attached to the message were screen-grabs of lists of the names, phone numbers and email addresses that appeared to belong to US military commanders.
Another posting said: “In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the CyberCaliphate continues its Cyber Jihad,” and was accompanied by a purported list of addresses for US military commanders.
Islamic State propaganda videos were posted to the Central Command’s YouTube account along with the same “CyberCaliphate” banner that was placed on the military’s Twitter account.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest, speaking shortly after the messages were posted, said that the Obama administration was “examining and investigating the extent of the incident”.
He urged caution in reporting the significance of what had happened, saying that there was a significant difference between “a large data breach and the hacking of a Twitter account”.
Among the photographs accompanied two messages posted on the Twitter account were maps of North Korea and China showing what seemed to be the location of nuclear facilities and military installations.
