Earlier this week, hackers claiming to be connected to ISIS hacked into the Twitter and YouTube accounts of CENTCOM, the United States Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East.    The hackers added two ISIS videos to the YouTube account and ISIS related messages to the Twitter account.  In addition, the hackers posted a number of documents.  It does not appear that any secret or classified material was jeopardized.   For instance, one of the documents posted, “Program Acquisition Cost by Weapon System” is a document publicly available on the website of the Department of Defense.  The federal government is investigating the hack.

TIPS

Although this hacking appears to be relatively harmless, it is indicative of a greater problem about which I have written many times, namely, the ability to do cyberattacks of websites and even critical national infrastructure is not limited to nation states.  Terrorist groups are able to have access to the technology necessary to perform potentially devastating attacks.  Businesses and governments around the world must act now to increase their security.