Threat Management, Threat Management

Pro-ISIS group compromises Newsweek Twitter account

Yet another Twitter account belonging to a major news organization has been compromised by cyber attackers.

Newsweek's Twitter page was taken over on Tuesday by the Cyber Caliphate, a Pro-Isis hacker collective, according to reports.

Attackers changed the account's profile and background image in addition to posting messages as an image of text which stated “While the US and its satellites are killing our brothers in Syrian, Iraq and Afghanistan, we are destroying your national cybersecurity system from inside.” Other Tweets made threats against President Obama's family on Valentine's Day.

The same group was responsible for compromising the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the U.S. Central Command last month, in addition to hacking the Twitter accounts of local media outlets.

The attack comes on the heels of the Obama's administration's announcement of the creation of a new agency aimed at combating cyber threats.


UPDATE: Newsweek Managing Editor Kira Bindrim has confirmed the attack in a recently released statement. "We can confirm that Newsweek's Twitter account was hacked this morning, and have since regained control of the account," Bindrim said. "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." According to a report by Newsweek, the website of its sister publication, International Business Times, may have been attacked by the same group on Tuesday.

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