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 "American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back, ISIS," the
hackers posted on the U.S. Central Command Twitter feed, using an
acronym for the hardline Islamist group, which has taken control of
parts of Syria and Iraq.
U.S. officials acknowledged that the incident in which the accounts
were "compromised" for about 30 minutes was embarrassing but played
down the impact. The FBI said it was investigating.
Pentagon spokesman Army Colonel Steve Warren said the Defense
Department "views this as little more than a prank, or as
vandalism."
"It's inconvenient, it's an annoyance but in no way is any sensitive
or classified information compromised," Warren told a press
briefing.
Defense officials said in a statement that "operational military
networks were not compromised and there was no operational impact."
Islamic State forces have been targeted in air strikes by the United
States and international partners.
 "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the
CyberCaliphate continues its CyberJihad," the Central Command
Twitter feed said after being hacked.
The Twitter account published a list of generals and addresses
associated with them, titled "Army General Officer Public Roster (by
rank) 2 January 2014."
Subsequent posts read, "Pentagon Networks Hacked! China Scenarios"
and "Pentagon Networks Hacked. Korean Scenarios."
Central Command said it was notifying Pentagon and law enforcement
authorities about the potential release of "personally identifiable
information" and work to make sure the people "potentially affected"
are notified quickly.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said during a press briefing that
the hacking was "something that we take seriously." But Earnest
added, "There's a pretty significant difference between what is a
large data breach and the hacking of a Twitter account."
Even as the hacking was taking place, President Barack Obama on
Monday announced new proposals aimed at bolstering American
cybersecurity after high-profile hacking incidents including one
against Sony Pictures Entertainment that U.S. officials blamed on
North Korea.
Several current and former U.S. security and intelligence officials
said until now they had never heard of the CyberCaliphate. Some of
the officials expressed skepticism at the group’s skills and
capabilities.
"Hacking a Twitter is about the equivalent of spray-painting a
subway car," a former senior U.S. intelligence official said.
But the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on
Homeland Security, Republican Michael McCaul of Texas, called the
incident "severely disturbing."
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"Assaults from cyber-jihadists will become more common unless the
administration develops a strategy for appropriately responding to
these cyberattacks, including those like the North Korea attack
against Sony," McCaul said.
REVIEW OF DOCUMENTS
Reuters reviewed some of the documents released by the hackers but
could not immediately identify any that appeared to contain
information that compromised national security. Some of the
documents were easily found using Google searches.
After the hacking, the heading of the Central Command Twitter
account showed a figure in a black-and-white head scarf and the
words "CyberCaliphate" and "I love you ISIS."
Central Command's YouTube account featured videos posted by the U.S.
military of air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq.
It was hacked to add two videos titled "Flames of War ISIS Video"
and "O Soldiers of Truth Go Forth."
Some of the slides posted on the Twitter account by the hackers
apparently were created by Lincoln Laboratory, a federally funded
research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that
studies national security problems.
Lincoln Lab did not immediately respond to questions about the
background and sensitivity of the slides, some of which dealt with
intelligence and reconnaissance that might be needed in a conflict
scenario involving China.
Central Command is based at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida and
handles American military operations covering the Middle East and
Central Asia. Central Command oversaw the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan and is managing the U.S. air strikes against Islamic
State in Iraq and Syria.
In what proved to be a bit of bad timing, the U.S. National
Counterintelligence and Security Center chose earlier on Monday to
join Twitter. It made a joke in its first tweet: "Up to 292
followers so far and not hacked yet."
(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, Ryan McNeill, Phil Stewart,
Andrea Shalal, Roberta Rampton, Doina Chiacu and David Brunnstrom;
Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Grant McCool and Toni Reinhold)
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