ISIS claims to release another U.S. military "hit list"
Hundreds of military personnel and embassy staff could be at risk after hackers associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leaked what the militant group claims to be their names, email addresses and passwords online.
ISIS' so-called "Hacking Division" claimed it hacked computers belonging to the American military and accessed details including photographs, addresses and even credit card information of Army, Navy and State Department figures, reports CBS News' Khaled Wassef.
The Twitter account of British ISIS hacker Abu Hussain al-Britani (Junaid Hussain), believed to be behind ISIS hackers' Division who released the new lists, wrote: "They have us on their 'hit list', and we have them on ours too..."
CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues reports U.S. government officials are aware of allegations that the so-called "Islamic State Hacking Division" has conducted the cyberattack. Law enforcement sources tell CBS News that government officials are trying to determine the accuracy of the claims.
In March, ISIS hackers released what it claimed lists the personal information of 100 members of the U.S. military. They said they were posting the information "so that our brothers in America can deal with you."
At the time, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marine Corps released a statement saying the NCIS is notifying the Navy and Marine personnel affected by the posting, adding: "It is recommended Marines and family members check their online/social footprint, ensuring privacy settings are adjusted to limit the amount of available personnel information."
Pentagon officials said the earlier list appeared to have be drawn from public sources -- everything from newspaper interviews to Facebook pages that connected them, sometimes incorrectly, with the war against ISIS.
Western officials have acknowledged the digital savvy of ISIS, which has used social media to recruit widely in the West and to spread propaganda in support of its brutal campaign to establish what it calls an Islamic caliphate in the Mideast.
After the earlier list was released, CENTCOM sent out a warning through Facebook to military personnel, that we are "operating in a new norm in which cyber threats are real" and any CENTCOM teammate or family member could be targeted. It suggested they "maintain a heightened sense of vigilance."