Update: U.S. Central Command Social Media Hacked, Soldiers Threatened

Followers of U.S. Central Command’s social media pages got an eyeful of apparent ISIS propaganda Monday when the Tampa-based military agency’s Twitter and YouTube accounts were hijacked.

While both accounts have since been suspended, followers were able to read a host of threats against American soldiers and their families.

“American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back,” read one tweet.

In another, the hijackers threatened military wives and children, The Tampa Tribune reported.

The Pentagon is planning a probe into Monday’s attack, but is concentrating its efforts on how hackers managed to get into a secure military site for retired officers and swipe information including names and addresses, the Washington Times reported. The stolen documents, were uploaded onto the hacked Twitter feed, the paper reported.

The agency’s YouTube account had Islamic State propaganda videos added to it for a time on Monday, as well, the Washington Post reported. That account, along with the Twitter feed, has since been disabled.

As of 1:48 p.m., U.S. Central Command’s Facebook page appeared to be untouched by the hackers.

See Also:

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• Jihadist Threats Prompt MacDill to Ask Troops to Downplay Military Ties

“We are aware of it and working on it,” the Tribune quoted Maj. Andrew Aranda of Centcom as saying.

U.S. Central Command is tasked with working with national and international partners to respond to crises and deter state and non-state aggression while supporting regional security, stability and prosperity, according to its website.

Centcom operates out of Tampa’s MacDill Air Force Base.

Central Command has been responsible for facilitating American-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in recent months.

Monday’s threats follow warnings back in October issued to military officials at MacDill for soldiers to downplay their military ties on social media accounts. An internal email was sent out to personnel on the base at the time, warning soldiers about “an aggressive social media campaign by terrorist organizations that intends to obtain large amounts of military related information they can use to target DoD (the U.S. Department of Defense),” ABC Action News quoted the base email as saying.

Twitter screenshot

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Editor’s note: This story was updated Jan. 12 at 4:07 p.m. to include information about a Pentagon probe into the hack.