Pierluigi Paganini
January 12, 2015
While Anonymous started the #OpCharlieHebdo campaign against jihadist websites to avenge the attack against the Charlie Hebdo, hackers of the CyberCaliphate group, claiming to support the terrorist group ISIS, have compromised the official Twitter account for the U.S. Central Command (US CENTCOM).
The U.S. Central Command is the wing of the US military whose area of responsibility includes IS territories, including Iraq and Syria. The CyberCaliphate hackers have controlled the accounts for less than an hour, replacing the US CENTCOM logo with the message “i love you isis.”
The hackers posted several messages on the hacked account including images of documents, which were allegedly stolen from hijacked mobile devices.
The responsible for the attack has also posted a warning to the US Army on Pastebin, announcing that the ISIS has infiltrated the networks of the Pentagon.
“In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the CyberCaliphate under the auspices of ISIS continues its CyberJihad. While the US and its satellites kill our brothers in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan we broke into your networks and personal devices and know everything about you. You’ll see no mercy infidels. ISIS is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base. With Allah’s permission we are in CENTCOM now. We won’t stop! We know everything about you, your wives and children. U.S. soldiers! We’re watching you! There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet! There is no law but Sharia!” reads the message posted by the hackers.
The documents released by hackers are said to have been taken from mobile devices, they include PDF files containing PowerPoint presentations and speech drafts.
According to the reporter for The Washington Post, Craig Whitlock, which covers the Pentagon and foreign affairs the attack could be much more serious that a simple Twitter account hijacking. The documents leaked appears to a sort of internal military documents
The attackers have also posted office images, a circumstance that suggest that sensitive data belonging to US official has been compromised.suggest that sensitive data belonging to US official has been compromised.suggest that sensitive data belonging to US official has been compromised.
Security experts are afraid that ISIS hackers have obtained data related mobile devices assigned to personnel working for the US Army, with serious repercussions. Twitter started the necessary actions to lock out the hackers from the US CENTCOM account.
The hackers also targeted other social media used by the US CENTCOM, they targeted the CENTCOM YouTube account.
“We can confirm that the CENTCOM Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised earlier today. We are taking appropriate measures to address the matter. We have no further information to provide at this time.” is the official statement issued by the U.S. Central Command.
It’s not the first time that US CENTCOM account have been hacked, inMarch 2014 the hackers of the Syrian Electronic Army have hit the U.S Central Command (CENTCOM). The SEA group shared an image of the central repository of CENTCOM reporting folders of the repository of have been hacked, inMarch 2014 the hackers of the Syrian Electronic Army have hit the U.S Central Command (CENTCOM). The SEA group shared an image of the central repository of CENTCOM reporting folders of the repository of have been hacked, inMarch 2014 the hackers of the Syrian Electronic Army have hit the U.S Central Command (CENTCOM). The SEA group shared an image of the central repository of CENTCOM reporting folders of the repository of inMarch 2014 the hackers of the Syrian Electronic Army have hit the U.S Central Command (CENTCOM). The SEA group shared an image of the central repository of CENTCOM reporting folders of the repository of Army Knowledge Online (AKO), which provides web-based enterprise information services to the United States Army. The Army Knowledge Online is considered the “the world’s largest intranet”.
(Security Affairs – US CENTCOM, ISIS)
