Newsweek magazine’s Twitter account came under cyberattack Tuesday as hackers claiming to be affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria posted messages threatening the first family and other U.S. security interests.
“In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, under the flag of the Islamic State CyberCaliphate its [sic] CyberJihad,” a message posted to Newsweek’s official account read Tuesday.
The group that hacked Newsweek Tuesday has in the past hacked the Twitter account of the United States Central Command and the official Twitter account of Taylor Swift.
“While the US and its satellites are killing our brothers in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan we are destroying your national security systems from inside. With Allah’s permission we continue CyberJihad inside Pentagon’s computer networks. Today we publish confidential documents from the US National Cyber secutiry [sic] Center,” the message added.
Newsweek’s account then tweeted a threat directed at the first family: “Bloody Valentine’s Day #MichelleObama! We’re watching you, you girls and your husband! #CyberCaliphate.”
The hacked account then proceeded to post photos of U.S. government documents, including documents detailing the Pentagon’s approach to “warfare in social media” and an organizational chart explaining the Defense Cyber Investigations Training Academy.
Although the document detailing the Pentagon’s social media warfare plans is clearly marked “unclassified,” it’s unclear whether the DCITA organizational chart contains sensitive information.
“The Islamic State is already here, CyberCaliphate got into your PCs. We know everything about you and your relatives and we’re much closer than you can even imagine,” the hackers said from Newsweek’s Twitter account.
“You’ll see no mercy infidels” they added. “We also support our brothers who’re liberating The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. … There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet! There is no law but Sharia!”
Within minutes of the attack, the pro-jihad tweets disappeared from Newsweek’s Twitter feed, the presumable result of the news group regaining control of its account.
“We can confirm that Newsweek’s Twitter account was hacked this morning, and have since regained control of the account,” Newsweek managing editor Kira Bindrim said in a statement after the cyber attack. “We apologize to our readers for anything offensive that might have been sent from our account during that period, and are working to strengthen our newsroom security measures going forward.”
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This post has been updated with comment from Newsweek.
