The Twitter and YouTube accounts of the U.S. military Central Command were hijacked by apparent ISIS-supporting Islamic militants on the afternoon of Jan. 12, U.S. Defense officials confirm.
According to the Washington Post, at approximately 12:30 p.m. EST was the @CENTCOM Twitter account infiltrated. Identifying itself as ?CyberCaliphate? in the cover image it posted to the account, the Islamic State militant supporters began issuing threatening statements, including this opening ?watch your back? message.
U.S. Central Command is currently leading the airstrike in Iraq against Syrian and Iraqi militants.
Another Tweet offered more details:
?In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the CyberCaliphate under the auspices of ISIS continues its CyberJihad. while (sic) 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 (sic)Allah’s permission we are in CENTCOM now.
we (sic) won’t stop! we (sic) know everything about you, your wives and children.
U.S. soldiers! we’re (sic) watching you!?
The message continues with a link to a page on pastebin.com (still operable at time of this publishing) which it insinuates offers ?confidential? information the group acquired.
CENTCOM’s YouTube account was also infiltrated. A similar banner image was posted on the page, along with links to two videos promoting an Islamic state, the Washington Post reported. One video was titled ?O Soldiers of Truth Go Forth.?
Twitter suspended the account in question at approximately 1:10 p.m. EST. As of 1:45 p.m., CENTCOM’s YouTube account can’t be acquired. Central Command issued a statement that it ?is taking appropriate measures to address the matter.?
