Well, this is a little scary.
U.S. Central Command, which operates out of MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and apparently has a Twitter account for some reason, was the victim of hackers claiming to be from ISIS.
The social media site has now suspended the hacked account.
CENTCOM's YouTube account was also hacked.
One post that occurred during the hack read "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."
Obviously arming a bunch of crazy assholes with the personal information of our armed service members is kind of a terrible thing, but officials have said the two social media sites don't contain any classified information, and have generally downplayed the hack.
Phew.
Even if the hack was innocuous — however embarrassing — the fact that a group can access these accounts is still a little unsettling, especially if it really was ISIS, given the group's known technological savvy.
If it's because CENTCOM's password for everything is "AMERICARULES," let's hope the IT team has thought to add a 1 at the end for their other accounts. Otherwise we're screwed.
U.S. Rep. David Jolly (R-Indian Shores) issued a statement in light of the hack:
“The news today is disturbing, but we don’t know yet who might be responsible nor do we have reason to believe there has been a significant data security breach. What we know to be true is the message – that there are organizations like ISIS and others who wish to bring harm to Americans and our homeland. Cyberattacks are merely one tool of warfare, a warfare we cannot ignore. We must continue to confront and defeat those who wish to bring harm to U.S. interests here and abroad. We are also a nation that is prepared for this type of threat. The United States established U.S. Cyber Command in 2009, and right here in the Bay area the State of Florida has established the Center for Cybersecurity at USF. We have the smartest and strongest force in the world. We will defeat this threat.”
This article appears in Jan 8-14, 2015.