By Glynn Cosker
Editor, In Homeland Security
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Twitter and YouTube accounts were hacked Monday and taken over by a group claiming allegiance to ISIS.
The Twitter account profile and cover photographs were changed to show apparent ISIS militants along with the phrases “CyberCaliphate” and “I love you ISIS.”
One of the tweets to CENTCOM stated: “American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back.” It was signed by ISIS.
CENTCOM monitors the U.S. military campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Propaganda videos showing ISIS military operations appeared on CENTCOM’s YouTube account, and documents containing the names of high-ranking U.S. military personnel were posted to each social media outlet for approximately 40 minutes until CENTCOM officials took down each account.
CENTCOM’s Twitter account usually posts updates on strikes against ISIS.
The embarrassing breach occurred around 12.30 EST, ironically at the same time that President Barack Obama was giving a speech on cyber security in which he stated that the Internet creates “enormous vulnerabilities for us as a nation and for our economy.”
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that the U.S. is investigating the CENTCOM social media compromise and stated that there was a major difference between a massive data breach and a Twitter account’s hacking.
CENTCOM officials were quick to point out that Twitter (and not their own data) was breached.