ISIS-related ‘Cyber Caliphate’ hacks Newsweek, threatens Obamas

Newsweek magazine's Twitter account, @Newsweek, was hacked on Tuesday morning by a group calling itself the 'Cyber Caliphate'. The group claimed to be affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) and has previously hacked @Centcom and the Twitter account of the United States Central Command.

The Newsweek account remained hacked for just 14 minutes, when Twitter's support team regained control of the 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. "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."

During the hack, the @Newsweek account's profile picture and banner were changed to images of a masked man and the Black Standard flag, along with a message "Je suIS IS." The group tweeted out offensive messages threatening Michelle Obama and praising "cyber jihad". Images the hackers claimed were confidential were also tweeted, specifically from the Defense Cyber Investigations Training Academy and the Pentagon.

The FBI is investigating the hack as some of the tweets sent threatened the Obama family.

Also on Tuesday, ibtimes.com, the website of the International Business Times, was hacked by what appeared to be the same group. A subsidiary Newsweek Tumblr account, nwkarchivist.tumblr.com, was also briefly hacked. The official Twitter account of Latin Times was also hacked. Newsweek, International Business Times and Latin Times share a parent company, IBT Media.

The "Je suIS IS" was a reference to the phrase "Je suis Charlie" (I too am Charlie) that emerged last month in support of victims of the attack by Islamic militants on Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris that killed 12 people (See: France in mourning amid manhunt for 'Hebdo' killer brothers).

The Islamic State militant group has seized territory in Iraq and Syria and has declared itself a "caliphate."

The hackers also posted a message intended for the United States in retaliation for its actions in the Muslim world.

"While the US and its satellites are killing our brothers in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, we are destroying your national cybersecurity system from inside," it said.

The message contained a list of names under the heading "brave Mujahideen."

The group took responsibility for the intrusion last month of the Twitter and YouTube accounts for the US Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East. The hackers claimed to be sympathetic toward the Islamic State, which is being targeted in bombing raids by a US-led coalition.

The attack on Central Command accounts in early January coincided with Obama's announcement of proposals to bolster US cybersecurity.

The cyberattack on Tuesday occurred the same day that Obama's counterterrorism coordinator, Lisa Monaco, announced the formation of a new agency to monitor and analyse cybersecurity threats.

At the time of the Central Command attack, several current and former US security and intelligence officials said they had never heard of the 'CyberCaliphate'. They noted that Twitter accounts are more vulnerable to cyber intrusions than many company or federal government websites.