Newsweek Twitter feed hijacked by pro-IS hacker
Newsweek's Twitter feed was briefly hijacked Tuesday by hackers who displayed messages supporting the Islamic State group.
The feed showed images similar to those from the hacking of the social media feed of the US Central Command last month.
The account showed a picture of a hooded figure and the words "Cyber Caliphate" along with the message "Je Suis IS," a response to the "Je Suis Charlie" messages following the deadly attacks at French weekly Charlie Hebdo.
Newsweek, a publication now owned by IBT Media, said the account was taken over for about 14 minutes before Twitter returned control to the news organization.
"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."
Twitter users noticed the anomaly, and saw the account appeared to have been restored a short time later, with an empty "egg" image in place of its customary logo.
In January, the hacked Centcom Twitter feed posted what appeared to be an office phone directory of officers that was slightly out of date.
The unauthorized tweets were removed, but images shown on some media showed they included threats against First Lady Michelle Obama and messages praising "cyber jihad."
Another message said: "While the US and its satellites are killing our brothers in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, we are destroying your national cybersecurity system from inside."
The move came the same day the US administration announced the launch of a new cyber intelligence center which aims to integrate information about threats to critical computer networks.
Other major media organizations have had social media accounts compromised including the BBC, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
© 2015 AFP
