FBI investigating ‘ISIS’ hack of military accounts

The FBI is looking into the hacking attack against U.S. Central Command (Centcom) that the perpetrators claimed was done on behalf of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS).

“The FBI is investigating the recent intrusion involving CENTCOM social media accounts and continues to work with the Department of Defense in order to determine the nature and scope of this incident,” the agency said in a statement.

{mosads}The hacking began Monday afternoon and lasted for approximately 30 minutes. Messages in support of ISIS began appearing on the Central Command Twitter account, along with threats to U.S. forces and their families.

Centcom officials said military networks were not compromised during the hacking and that they are viewing the incident “purely as a case of cybervandalism.”

“CENTCOM’s operational military networks were not compromised and there was no operational impact to U.S. Central Command,” officials said in a statement.

“These sites reside on commercial, non-Defense Department servers and both sites have been temporarily taken offline while we look into the incident further,” Centcom said.

The hackers, who have not been identified, posted official documents on Centcom’s Twitter feed, including contact information for service members, plans for an engagement with China and North Korea, and one on the use of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets.

Some of the documents appeared to be from password protected sites, and did not appear to be publicly available, according to Defense One.

Centcom said it was their initial assessment that no classified information was posted, and no information posted came from Centcom internally.

“Additionally, we are notifying appropriate DoD and law enforcement authorities about the potential release of personally identifiable information and will take appropriate steps to ensure any individuals potentially affected are notified as quickly as possible,” they said.

Centcom said it would restore service to its Twitter and YouTube accounts as “quickly as possible.”

Cory Bennett contributed.