WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 (UPI) — A Twitter account which claims to be a hacking group for the Islamic State (IS) claimed Tuesday that it hacked into the U.S. military.
The account said that it has published the personal information of hundreds U.S. military and government personnel. It claimed that the names, emails, passwords, credit card information and phone numbers of Air Force, Marine, NASA, New York Port Authority and New Jersey Port Authority personnel have been published. The account, now suspended, was linked to ISIS fighter Abu Hussain al-Britani.
A security firm named Flashpoint Intelligence, which is also a consultant for NBC News, could not confirm the claim made by the account. The claim mirrors a similar one made in March, when the group said that it had published names, photos and addresses of U.S. service members. This claim was found to be overblown and the information to already be freely available. Service members whose names were published in the alleged hack were not suspended from service or granted personal security.
On Monday, a restaurant in Middletown, Ohio was also hacked by alleged supporters, who succeeded in replacing the restaurant website’s landing page with the logo for the Islamic State and a message preaching the rectification of Islam. A banner near the top of the screen read “Hacked by Team System Dz” and the landing page played an Arabic song. The message was similar to those placed on websites for other businesses.
The restaurant has since apologized and removed the message from its website. The hack was determined to be the result of a plugin installed across all the websites that were affected as opposed to a specific attack.
