The White House said Monday it was taking the hack of the U.S. Central Command Twitter feed “seriously” but cautioned that the incident was far different from the type of “large data breach” that has exposed U.S. cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
“This is something that we’re obviously looking into and something that we take seriously,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters of hackers claiming to be tied to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria taking over the social media feed.
The hack came as President Obama spoke at the Federal Trade Commission about the need to beef up cybersecurity standards.
The hackers posted what they claimed were phone numbers for top Pentagon officials and military scenarios for a conflict with North Korea and China.
The Twitter account has since been suspended.
The White House offered little new information on the hacking but said that it should not be compared to a recent of high-string cyberattacks, such as the incident at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
“There’s a significant difference over what is a large data breach and the hacking of a Twitter account,” Earnest said.
