U.S. military Twitter feed hacked, apparently by IS sympathizers

British hacker linked to attack on Pentagon Twitter feed: sources By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON Tue Jan 13, 2015 7:27pm EST Share this Email Print A computer screenshot shows the U.S. Central Command Twitter feed after it was apparently hacked by people claiming to be Islamic State sympathizers January 12, 2015. REUTERS/Staff A computer screenshot shows the U.S. Central Command Twitter feed after it was apparently hacked by people claiming to be Islamic State sympathizers January 12, 2015. Credit: Reuters/Staff Related News Obama seeks enhanced cybersecurity laws to fight hackers Apparent Islamic State backers hack U.S. military Twitter feed FBI investigating hack of U.S. Central Command's social media accounts U.S. Central Command's YouTube, Twitter accounts suspended: Pentagon U.S. intelligence agency joins Twitter, hours before military account hacked Analysis & Opinion World’s cartoonists respond to the attack on ‘Charlie Hebdo’ Review: Fixing the CIA – a novel approach Related Topics Tech » Twitter » (Reuters) - The "CyberCaliphate" hacking group that attacked a Twitter account belonging to the Pentagon on Monday was founded by a Briton who was once jailed for hacking the personal address book of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, according to government sources and private sector security experts. U.S. and European government sources said investigators strongly believe that Junaid Hussain, 20, was the leader of CyberCaliphate, though they do not know if he was personally involved in hacking the Twitter (TWTR.N) and YouTube (GOOGL.O) accounts of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East. Hussain could not be reached for comment. In 2012, Hussain was jailed for six months for stealing Blair's address book from an email account maintained by one of Blair's advisors. Hussain pleaded guilty to putting details of the address book online and making hoax calls to a counter-terrorism hotline. Hussain, who lived in Birmingham, England, moved to Syria sometime in the last two years, according to British media reports. U.S. and European investigators said they are investigating whether Monday's attack on the U.S. Central Command's Twitter and YouTube accounts was launched from Syria, though they have not finished examining the technical evidence. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity. Pentagon spokesman Army Colonel Steve Warren has called the cyberattack "inconvenient" but stressed that no sensitive or classified information was compromised by the hackers, who claimed to be sympathetic toward the Islamic State militant group being targeted in American bombing raids. Investigators believe that Hussain was the main individual behind a Twitter account that operated under the pseudonym Abu Hussain al Britani, according to the sources. That account was linked to CyberCaliphate after the group last week claimed responsibility for hacking the Albuquerque Journal in New Mexico and WBOC, a Delaware television station. Neither the Albuquerque Journal nor WBOC responded to requests for comment. The Abu Hussain al Britani account has been suspended as of Tuesday. One of the government sources said it was possible that other people besides Hussain used that account. Alex Kassirer, an analyst with Flashpoint Global Partners, said Hussain led efforts by Islamic State to recruit "hackers for a CyberCaliphate." Flashpoint Global Partners is a private company that monitors extremist Internet postings for government agencies and private clients. She said the CyberCaliphate first surfaced when it published a "recruitment announcement" on Sept. 11, 2014. According to Kassirer, Hussain's British wife said on her Twitter account last week that her husband had been killed in a drone attack. U.S. and European security officials said there was no confirmation that Hussain was dead (Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by Tiffany Wu) ======== Chechen leader blasts Europe over double standards on terrorism Published time: January 12, 2015 10:14 Edited time: January 12, 2015 19:13 Get short URL Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov (RIA Novosti/Said Tsarnaev) Charlie Hebdo attack & fallout Tags Chechnya, EU, France, Kadyrov, Politics, Russia, Terrorism The unprecedented public response to the Charlie Hebdo shootings in France could be organized by those who want to stir anti-Islamic sentiment and distract people from other problems, claims the leader of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov. The head of the Chechen Republic explained his position through his longtime medium of choice – the Instagram photo sharing service. In an extensive post accompanying a picture of himself Kadyrov said that he welcomed the “single-hearted” denouncing of terrorism by world leaders as well as the millions of people taking part in demonstrations in Paris. He also condemned the killing of unarmed people by terrorists and considered the fight against terrorism the most important task in his life. At the same time Kadyrov posed a question. Was the denouncing aimed at terrorism only in France or were the public figures and people targeting the evil all over the World? “Why the presidents, kings and prime ministers have never led marches of protest against the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Afghans, Syrians, Egyptians, Libyans, Yemenis, and Iraqis? Why did they remain silent when terrorists exploded a bomb in the Chechen government HQ or when they blew up the Grozny stadium killing Chechen President Akhmad-Haji Kadyrov [Ramzan Kadyrov’s father] and his aides? Why did they not react to the raid on the school in Beslan and the hostage taking at Moscow’s Dubrovka Theater? Why keep silent when in December last year terrorists captured the House of Press and a school in Grozny, killing and injuring over 50 people?” Kadyrov writes in his latest address. “It is impossible to secure Paris, London, Madrid and other European capitals if the whole society fails to condemn those who raise and sponsor terrorists all over the world masking it as support for opposition movements,” Kadyrov stated. The Chechen strongman wrote that he suspected some powerful forces of preparing the whole scenario in order to incite an anti-Islamic mood in Europe or to distract public attention from some brewing global problem. A fervent believer in Islam, Kadyrov also wrote that he and his allies would not allow anyone to insult the Prophet, even if this would cost them their lives. “If we are still silent this does not mean that we cannot get millions of people onto the streets all over the world protesting against those who connive at the insults to Muslims’ religious feelings. Is this what you want?” he stated, apparently addressing the political leaders of the Western world. The head of the Chechen republic also suggested the mass media had “allowed themselves to get involved in the scandal,” and should apologize to Muslims to end the controversy. “Peace and stability are more important for all peoples than the right of a handful of journalists to disrespect the Prophet,” he wrote. =============== Mon, Jan 12 17:19 PM EST image By David Alexander and Jim Finkle (Reuters) - The Twitter and YouTube accounts for the U.S. military command that oversees operations in the Middle East were hacked on Monday by people claiming to be sympathetic toward the Islamic State militant group being targeted in American bombing raids. U.S. officials acknowledged that the incident was embarrassing but sought to downplay its importance. 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. U.S. officials said the U.S. Central Command Twitter account and its YouTube account were suspended after being compromised. The White House said it was monitoring the extent of the hacking incident. Two U.S. defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the hacking was an embarrassment but that the images posted by the hackers did not appear to include classified information or pose a security threat. "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 feed had several messages from hackers, including one telling American soldiers to "watch your back," and the YouTube account had two videos that appeared to be linked to Islamic State. Islamic State has taken control of parts of Syria and Iraq. The group's forces have been targeted in ongoing air strikes by the United States and international partners. 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." "We can confirm that the CENTCOM Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised earlier today. We are taking appropriate measures to address the matter," Central Command said in a statement. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said during a press briefing that the hacking was "something that we take seriously." Earnest seemed to downplay the impact of the incident, saying, "There's a pretty significant difference between what is a large data breach and the hacking of a Twitter account." President Barack Obama separately on Monday announced new proposals aimed at bolstering American cybersecurity in the wake of recent high-profile hacking incidents including one against Sony Pictures Entertainment that U.S. officials have blamed on North Korea. While it was not clear that any Pentagon network had been compromised, it did appear that the hackers were successful in temporarily gaining control of Central Command’s Twitter feed, which is controlled through a password. The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, Republican Michael McCaul of Texas, called the incident "severely disturbing." "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 could easily be found using Google searches, including the U.S. Department of Defense’s “Estimated Impacts of Sequestration-Level Funding,” which is available on a public government website. Another budget document, “Program Acquisition Cost by Weapon System” is a March 2014 document available on the website of the defense department’s comptroller. Another is a draft version of the 2015 appropriations bill for the Defense Department. After the hacking, the heading of the Central Command Twitter account showed a figure in a black-and-white headscarf and the words "CyberCaliphate" and "I love you ISIS," using an acronym for Islamic State. 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 apparently was hacked to add two videos titled "Flames of War ISIS Video" and "O Soldiers of Truth Go Forth." Several private researchers said such incidents are fairly common. "While this will probably be described as ‘sophisticated,’ it's really not that difficult to gain access to someone else’s social media or email account," said Michael Smith, chief operating officer of Kronos Advisory, a private intelligence group focused on counterterrorism. 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 for the first time. It made a joke in its first tweet: "Up to 292 followers so far and not hacked yet." 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. Islamic State has attracted followers internationally who support its hard-line Islamist message. One of the men who carried out the deadly attacks in Paris last week had declared his allegiance to Islamic State. (Reporting by Ryan McNeill, Phil Stewart, Andrea Shalal, Roberta Rampton, Doina Chiacu and David Brunnstrom; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Grant McCool and Toni Reinhold) ======================= Islamic State kills 24 Kurds in surprise attack in North Iraq Sun, Jan 11 07:21 AM EST ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Islamic State militants have killed at least 24 members of the Kurdish security forces in a surprise attack in northern Iraq, Kurdish officials said, in one of the deadliest single battles for the Kurds since last summer. Three Kurdish officers reported continued clashes with Islamic State on Sunday, one day after the deaths, near Gwer, a town some 40km (25 miles) southwest of the autonomous Kurdish region's capital Arbil. Kurdish-controlled Gwer is likely to be a launch-pad for any future attempt by Iraqi and Kurdish forces to retake Mosul, the biggest city in northern Iraq which Islamic State seized last June. Islamic State militants crossed the river Zab in small boats on Friday night and entered Gwer, but were driven back by Kurdish peshmerga forces, the officers said. "We've been engaged in fighting with them for the past two days," said one senior Kurdish officer on the Gwer frontline as the sound of gunfire rattled in the background. The officer, who asked to remain anonymous, said around 60 militants in total had been killed and that by intercepting the frequency they used to communicate via walkie-talkie and listening in, it appeared many more were injured. Both he and another officer blamed the Iraqi army for allowing the militants to reach Gwer. They accused Iraqi soldiers of abandoning a forward position when they came under attack, leaving the town exposed. REFINERY UNDER ATTACK The peshmerga launched a ground offensive to drive IS militants out of the Gwer area in late December, retaking several villages with the help of coalition airstrikes. Islamic State said on Friday it had launched a counter-attack against the peshmerga with a range of weapons including TOW missiles and rockets, killing dozens, including a senior officer. More than 750 peshmerga have been killed in combat since Islamic State overran their defenses in northern Iraq last summer, prompting the first airstrikes by the United States. The Kurds have now regained most of the ground they lost in August. However, peshmerga commanders complain they remain ill-equipped compared with the militants, who plundered Iraqi arms depots when they overran Mosul in June. Elsewhere, Islamic State fighters attacked the refinery of Baiji in northern Iraq on Sunday, a security officer said. Twenty mortar rounds were fired at the refinery, followed by a car bomb and three hours of fighting before the militants retreated, he said. Baghdad's forces and Islamic State have battled since June for control of the refinery and its neighboring town. (Isabel Coles, Additional reporting by Saif Hameed; Editing by Ned Parker and Gareth Jones)