WASHINGTON: Seeking to issue its next major threat, the Islamic State has posted the details of 100 US military personnel online and called for their assassinations by the Muslims.
Apparently an ISIS-affiliated group, the group that calls itself ‘Islamic State Hacking Division’, leaked online the names and addresses of 100 members of US Army, Air Force and Navy, and issued a call to the Muslims of the US to kill them for they had participated in US airstrikes against the ISIS.
SITE Intel Group, a terror-tracking site, posted on Twitter:Though the group claims that it hacked the details of the military personnel, the US Defense Department says that most of the data was in the public domain, the BBC reported.
The US central command confirmed the threat saying, “Recently, a group claiming to represent ISIL has posed more online threats to military servicemembers and their families”.
“Adversaries and malicious “cyber” actors continue to use any method possible in an attempt to gain access and exploit any information they can. I ask that you maintain vigilance and continue to safeguard yourself and your family’s security while interfacing on the internet and participating in Social Media,” the US Central Command said.
The US Defense Department says that it has started investigating into the online ISIS threat.Also, those mentioned in the ISIS threat list are being contacted and advised to adjust their online privacy settings, said the BBC citing a US security source.
Meanwhile, the US Marine Corps on Sunday said that that protection of the commanders remains a top priority and urged those on ISIS hit list to remain cautious and “check their online/social footprint, ensuring privacy settings are adjusted to limit the amount of available personal information,” the AFP quoted a top officer as saying.
“Vigilance and force protection considerations remain a priority for commanders and their personnel,” the AFP quoted Lieutenant Colonel John Caldwell as saying.  This is not the first time that ISIS hackers have targeted US military personnel.
Earlier in January, unidentified supporters of the extremist group Islamic State had hacked the Youtube and Twitter accounts of US military’s Central Command and posted comments like “Love you ISIS” and “US soldiers, we are coming. Watch your back!”.
The hackers replaced the military command’s logo with the one featuring a masked fighter and words like “Cyber Caliphate” and “I love you ISIS”.
The hackers had reportedly posted some internal details like phone directory of military officials and pictures and powerplant slides related to North Korea and China.The CyberCaliphate “is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base,” tweeted the IS hackers.