U.S. CENTCOM's Social Media Accounts Back Online After Hack

The Twitter and YouTube accounts for the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) are back online after hackers, stated to be in support of the Islamic State militant group, broke into the accounts and posted menacing messages.

Military officials still are investigating the breach, which occurred Monday and prompted officials to suspend the accounts.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the hack was “a violation, it wasn’t a big deal,” but it illustrated that militant groups are technologically capable.

CENTCOM posted a tweet announcing, “We’re back!” after the “act of cybervandalism.”

“CENTCOM's operational military networks were not compromised and there was no operational impact to U.S. Central Command,” reads a command statement. “CENTCOM will restore service to its Twitter and YouTube accounts as quickly as possible. We are viewing this purely as a case of cybervandalism.”

While the hack was on accounts hosted by commercial businesses, Twitter and YouTube, and not a breach of the U.S. military’s network, the incident can leave a public perception of vulnerability and unsecured systems, industry experts said.

The breach gives the “appearance that, while [the United States] claims to have these security measures underway, we (the hackers) can do the following damage,” Ken Ammon, chief strategy officer of the network security company Xceedium Incorporated, said Monday of the breach.

The U.S. and coalition nations began launching airstrikes against insurgents in Iraq and Syria last summer.