ISIL Allegedly Hacks US Military, Government Staff Information
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Personal details supposedly on US military personnel were revealed by a hacker group which claims to be associated with the ISIL terrorist group.
A hacker group claiming to be affiliated with the terror organization ISIL posted what it said was the personal information of hundreds of members of the US military and government personnel, and urged terrorists to carry out attacks, the NBC News reported Tuesday.
Flashpoint Intelligence, a global security firm and NBC News consultant, said it could not authenticate the claim by the so-called "ISIL Hacking Division" or the accuracy of the information.
The Twitter account used has been affiliated with infamous ISIL fighter Abu Hussain Al Britani, Flashpoint said. The account has since been suspended.
The group claimed the information contained names, emails, passwords, and phone numbers of personnel that included individuals from the Air Force, the Marines, NASA and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. There is no indication as to how old the information is, or whether the email addresses and passwords are still valid.
"We are aware of the report but cannot confirm credibility at this time," a spokesperson for the Department of Defense said in an email. "The safety of our service members is always a primary concern."
The group had previously claimed it hacked American servers and distributed information on military personnel, but analysts believe that claim was overstated, and the information was instead culled from freely available social media accounts, Flashpoint said.
The information released Tuesday also included the purported credit card information of several US State Department officials as well as screenshots of private Facebook messages between purported US service memebers.
Flashpoint analysts said the "hack" — if true — could be significant as it would represent a growing effort by pro-ISIL groups to distribute personal information that could be used in lone-wolf attacks.
