THE US MILITARY COMMAND THING, CentCOM, has lost control of two of its social media accounts and seen them turned over to pro-ISIS messages.US Central Command is, you might think, the sort of outfit that would have a strong hold on things.It has got its mitts back on the accounts, but does admit that for a period of time they were in the hands of other, less US-sanctioned, actors.However, CentCOM does not seem to have taken the assault too badly, and is not treating it as a terror-style act."Earlier today, US Central Command's Twitter and YouTube sites were compromised for approximately 30 minutes," the outfit said."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's operational military networks were not compromised and there was no operational impact to US Central Command."CentCOM will restore service to its Twitter and YouTube accounts as quickly as possible. We are viewing this purely as a case of cyber vandalism."The "cyber vandalism" saw a range of messages go live during the 30-minute period, and some pro-Islamic messaging dominated the official US military mouthpiece."American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back," said one, while another explained that a "CyberCaliphate" is carrying out a "CyberJihad".CyberCaliphate is an apparently pro-ISIS hacker group. A Twitter account associated with the name was live yesterday, but has now been suspended.A Pastebin note attributed to the group claims that the hackers have access to personal information relating to military personnel, and warns of more action to come."In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the CyberCaliphate under the auspices of ISIS continues its CyberJihad," it says."While 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 Allah's permission we are in CentCOM now. We won't stop! We know everything about you, your wives and children. US soldiers! We're watching you!"CentCOM remains unfussed by this, and claims that no data has been plundered."Our initial assessment is that no classified information was posted and that none of the information posted came from CentCOM's server or social media sites," it added."Additionally, we are notifying appropriate Department of Defense 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."We have, in the past, seen the ISIS flag used by groups other than the originators. A Sony executive said last year that prank assaults should be distinguished from genuine attacks. µ
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