On January 12, 2014, the pro-ISIS hacker group CyberCaliphate hacked the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the U.S. Armed Forces Central Command (CENTCOM). The group used the accounts to disseminate their propaganda, as well as to leak information on CENTCOM personnel and other documents. The Pentagon later said the information posted by CyberCaliphate was not "highly classified."
The CENTCOM Twitter account was subsequently taken offline, and the official CyberCaliphate Twitter account, which also announced the hacking, has been suspended.
CyberCaliphate began operating only recently, and has already claimed responsibility for multiple cyber-attacks on U.S. targets, including, on December 24, 2014, the Albuquerque Journal and unnamed "official network communications." The group also claimed to have hacked the FBI's New Mexico office on January 7, 2015.
Following are several tweets made by CyberCaliphate from the hacked account (some info has been blurred out by MEMRI), as well as from CENTCOM's YouTube page, and from CyberCaliphate's own Twitter account, as well as expressions of support for the hack from the Jihadi Media Platform (a pro-ISIS message board):
CENTCOM Twitter Account:
CyberCaliphate Twitter Account:
Expressions Of Support On Pro-ISIS Message Board
Users on the pro-ISIS message board Jihadi Media Platform (Alplatformmedia.com) celebrated the hack and posted messages of encouragement. User Muawhid Al-Ma'ribi wrote: "I swear by Allah, [the hack is] a great strike." He later added: "We defeated Twitter's administration, hacked the Americans' accounts, gathered their data, and terrified their leadership..." Another user, Falah, wrote: "Twitter [administration] is going to go crazy." Al-Nu'man Al-Jaza'iri wrote: "Allah Akbar... By Allah, a great and delighted act. Thanks to Allah." User Mata Al-Sa'a wrote: "This is the first [rain] drop, and we await the rain, Allah willing..."
The hack announcement on the Jihadi Media Platform message board
Source: Twitter.com, Us.sputniknews.com, Wsj.com, January 12, 2015. Alplatformmedia.com, January 12, 2015.
Latest Posts
