Newsweek Twitter Account Hacked By Group Claiming ISIS Affiliation, Posts Threat To Michelle Obama And Daughters


Newsweek’s Twitter account was the victim of hackers on Tuesday morning, who posted a threat to Michelle Obama, her daughters, and the president.

The group, which also took responsibility for hacking Pentagon social media accounts last month, tweeted “#CyberCaliphate Bloody Valentine’s Day #MichelleObama! We’re watching you, you girls, and your husband!”

According to Reuters, a message intended for the United States in retaliation for its actions in the Muslim world was also posted.

“While the U.S. and its satellites are killing our brothers in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, we are destroying your national cyber security system from inside,” it said.

The message contained a list of names under the heading “brave mujahideen.”

The Newsweek account remained hacked for 14 minutes, and by mid-morning the publication had removed the CyberCaliphate banner and tweets.

In a statement, Newsweek confirmed that the intrusion had taken place, and assured their readers that they had 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.

“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 su IS IS.” The group tweeted out offensive messages threatening Michelle Obama and praising “cyber jihad.” And 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.

Newsweek reports that on Tuesday, ibtimes.com, the website of the International Business Times, was also 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 hackers took responsibility for the intrusion last month of the Twitter and YouTube accounts for the U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East. The group claimed to be sympathetic toward the Islamic State militant group being targeted in American bombing raids.

[Image via Reuters]

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