Military tightens password security after CENTCOM Twitter hack - Obama says US must up its game on cyberthreats - Centcom hack shows US fails to get ahead of hackers

 (Shown here is an image of the compromised U.S. Central Command Twitter account.)

The hack attack that seized the U.S. Central Command’s Twitter and YouTube accounts on Monday has prompted the military to tighten its social media password security.

Officials have launched an investigation into the alarming hack, which saw the accounts briefly carrying messages promoting the Islamic State.

On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters that he has ordered all 50 Office of Secretary of Defense social media websites to change their passwords and increase the strength of their passwords — and offered a tip sheet to social media account administrators on “how to keep their accounts more secure.”

DoD has thousands of social media websites that it is operating in an official capacity.

Security experts say that the Central Command hack should serve as a wake-up call for military social media. “They probably could have avoided this using ordinary [password] hygiene,” Roger Kay, president of research firm Endpoint Technologies, told FoxNews.com.

Standard security procedures include the use of long passwords with multiple characters and ensuring that only a small number of people can access the accounts, according to Kay. “You want to have just one or two individuals responsible for the account,” he said. “They should be named individuals, so that if there’s a problem, you can go to those people.

Tim Junio, a cybersecurity fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, also highlighted the risks posed by weak passwords.

“If, in fact, the accounts were breached due to poorly chosen passwords and security challenge question responses, the advice would be to make sure that the staff responsible for social media for DoD are well trained in best practices for strong passwords and unique security question answers,” he told FoxNews.com, in an email.  

Twitter and YouTube have not yet responded to a request for comment on this story. A DoD spokeswoman told FoxNews.com that the FBI is investigating the intrusion and working with the department to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

In a statement released on Monday evening, Central Command said that its Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised for approximately 30 minutes, before being taken temporarily offline while officials investigated the incident. The Twitter account and YouTube channel were back online late Monday.

In its statement, Central Command explained that the sites reside “on commercial, non-Defense Department servers.”

Endpoint Technologies’ Kay said that, while the hack is clearly embarrassing, moving the sites to specially-built servers within the Defense Department is not necessary. “They should continue to use commercial servers, but secure them using normal methods,” he said. “My sense is that they were a little bit careless with their security.”

Ofer Hendler, CEO of cloud security specialist Skyfence, told FoxNews.com that multi-factor authentication, which uses a combination of passwords, personal information, and device verification is a powerful way to protect against account takeover. “It forces would-be attackers to present at least two forms of authentication — one that involves something you own (e.g., a mobile device) and the other something you know (e.g., a one-time password),” he explained, in an email.

In its statement, Central Command noted that its operational military networks were not compromised in the hack and downplayed the incident as “a case of cybervandalism.” 

The Twitter account, while it was compromised, carried an image identifying the page as “CyberCaliphate” with a message that said, “I love you ISIS.” 

The hacker group may be the same one that is under FBI investigation for hijacking the websites or Twitter feeds of media outlets in the last month, including a Maryland television station and a New Mexico newspaper. 

The intrusion on the military Twitter account carried the same logo, CyberCaliphate name and photo that appeared on the Albuquerque Journal’s website in late December when one of its stories was hacked. And earlier this month, it appeared that the same hackers breached the Journal’s Twitter account and also took over the website and Twitter feed of WBOC-TV in Salisbury, Md. 

During the Central Command hack, tweets contained what appeared to be military plans and contact information for military officials — one posting even showed what appeared to be an image from a computer webcam in a military facility.

Central Command said that, based on its initial assessment, no classified information was posted and that none of the information came from its server or social media sites.  “Additionally, we are notifying appropriate DoD and law enforcement authorities about the potential release of personally identifiable information and will take appropriate steps to ensure any individuals potentially affected are notified as quickly as possible,” it said, in its statement.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Military tightens password security after CENTCOM Twitter hack - Obama says US must up its game on cyberthreats - Centcom hack shows US fails to get ahead of hackers

Kiprich, Danielle deny sex rumour - Refute Twitter claims of act during video shoot

CURTIS CAMPBELL, STAR Writer

Danielle DI (left) and KipRich. – Contributed

Dancehall artistes Danielle D.I and Kiprich have denied allegations made by a Twitter account called Kiprich Sting King, which claims that the artistes had sexual relations while filming the music video for their recent collaboration.

In a series of controversial posts, the Twitter account claims that the two recording artistes have been dating and even implies that Kiprich was the person who led to Danielle D.I’s failed relationship with former Jamaica and Stoke City star footballer, Ricardo Fuller.

“A me slap har wey from Fuller. Who a di reaaal baller now,” one of the tweets from Kiprich Sting King read.

The WEEKEND STAR contacted Kiprich for clarification and he said persons have been targeting his social network pages since the start of the year.

“This is a fake Twitter account, my real account is Kiprich Nuh Behaviour. I wouldn’t guh mek another twitter account fi talk things bout people. A just some mischievous people, me and D.I just do a song and video called Hear The Pree, and we bring out the concept in the video. When a man a guh call people name dem thing deh nuh good, me wouldn’t do that. That’s not my style,” he continued.

Get a grip

“The last time dem target mi Facebook a try get money from people and now this. Some people just idle and need something to do. Get a grip, get a hold a yu life man. I am a private person, I am more the sneaky type,” Kiprich said.

Danielle D.I also criticised the creators of the Twitter page, claiming that they were trying to hamper the progress of Hear The Pree.

“Are you serious, sex on set of a video? What kind of groupie business dat dem a pull off pan mi? This pass devastating. I woke up in such a good mood, I don’t know why people come up with this right now. Imagine you are trying to move forward and people are trying to drag you backwards. I have a very private life and I have moved on with my life, so I am deeply hurt to hear comments like this. Just stop being malicious and stop hating … oh God,” she said.

Danielle D.I and Kiprich recently released a raunchy trailer for their video for Hear Di Pree that will be officially released in July. She also has a new single titled, Heads Up produced by Sly and Robbie. Kiprich is also promoting the single Loyalty Over Royalty and will soon be leaving for Canada alongside Outaroad Records label mate Berri.

The Kiprich Sting King account now has over 2,000 followers, while Kiprich’s original account Kipponubehavior has over 25,000 followers.

Curtis.campbell@gleanerjm.com

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Kiprich, Danielle deny sex rumour - Refute Twitter claims of act during video shoot

Twitter action urged after threats

27 July 2013 Last updated at 16:49 ET By Keith Moore BBC News Caroline Criado-Perez: Twitter complaints procedure “completely inadequate”

A petition calling on Twitter to add a “report abuse” button has received thousands of signatures.

It follows a deluge of abuse and rape threats received by Caroline Criado-Perez, who successfully campaigned for women to be included on UK banknotes.

MP Stella Creasy told the BBC she was “furious” Twitter had yet to do anything about Ms Criado-Perez’s abuse.

Twitter UK’s Tony Wang said the company was “testing ways to simplify” reporting abuse.

‘Frequently ignored’

Ms Criado-Perez, who had appeared in the media to campaign for women to feature on banknotes, said the abusive tweets began the day it was announced that author Jane Austen would appear on the newly designed £10 note.

She reported them to the police after receiving “about 50 abusive tweets an hour for about 12 hours” and said she had “stumbled into a nest of men who co-ordinate attacks on women”.

Continue reading the main story

Once again, a social network is at the centre of a storm over hateful and offensive content posted by its own users.

Twitter now faces a tricky dilemma – it has never been keen to police the messages posted by its users, and wants to be seen as a protector of free speech.

If it agrees to campaigners’ demands for a “report abuse” button on every tweet, it will then need to employ an army of monitors to respond to complaints and decide what constitutes abuse.

The company would prefer that threatening tweets were referred to the police, who in the UK have been active in pursuing social media users suspected of breaking the law.

But with a campaign for a boycott on 4 August gathering pace, Twitter will need to show it understands the pressure to make the network a safer and more polite place – and come up with ideas to make that happen.

Ms Criado-Perez, from Rutland, told the BBC she had also tried to contact Twitter’s manager of journalism and news, Mark Luckie, about the rape threats she was receiving, but he did not respond and locked his tweets to become private.

She said the form that allows Twitter users to report abuse was not adequate – particularly when such a high volume of abuse was being received. “Twitter need to be on the side of the victims,” she said.

An online petition has been started in response to the abuse Ms Criado-Perez received calling for Twitter to introduce a “report abuse” button. It had been signed by more than 9,000 people by 15:00 BST on Saturday.

Kim Graham from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, put the petition online at 09:00 BST after seeing abuse that Ms Criado-Perez had been getting. She told the BBC the “report abuse” button was something that came into her mind after finding it was “harder than it should be to report abuse”.

The petition says: “Abuse on Twitter is common; sadly too common. And it frequently goes ignored. We need Twitter to recognise that its current reporting system is below required standards.

“The report abuse button needs to be accompanied by Twitter reviewing the T&C [terms and conditions] on abusive behaviour to reflect an awareness of the complexity of violence against women, and the multiple oppressions women face. It’s time Twitter started protecting its users.”

‘Hate crime’

Ms Criado-Perez’s cause has been supported by other prominent tweeters, including the journalists Caitlin Moran and Suzanne Moore and Independent columnist Owen Jones.

Ms Moran has called for a 24-hour Twitter boycott on 4 August to try to get Twitter to come up with an “anti-troll policy”.

Labour MP Ms Creasy said: “This is not a technology crime – this is a hate crime. If they were doing it on the street, the police would act.”

She told the BBC she had been chasing Twitter for the past 24 hours but they had not yet responded to her.

“I am absolutely furious with Twitter that they are not engaging in this at all,” she said.

A Twitter spokesperson said: “The ability to report individual tweets for abuse is currently available on Twitter for iPhone and we plan to bring this functionality to other platforms, including Android and the web.

“We don’t comment on individual accounts. However, we have rules which people agree to abide by when they sign up to Twitter. We will suspend accounts that once reported to us, are found to be in breach of our rules.

“We encourage users to report an account for violation of the Twitter rules by using one of our report forms.”

The general manager of Twitter UK, Tony Wang, later tweeted that the company was “testing ways to simplify reporting, e.g. within a Tweet by using the ‘Report Tweet’ button in our iPhone app and on mobile web”.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed that “officers from Camden have received an allegation regarding comments made via a social network, that was reported on 25 July”.

He added that “inquiries continue” but so far there had been “no arrests”.

There have been some high profile arrests related to celebrities abused on Twitter, including a teenager arrested over the abuse of Great Britain’s Olympic diver Tom Daley.

Guidelines published by the Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer in June said there should be a “high threshold for prosecution in cases involving communications which may be considered grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or false”.

View the original article here

Twitter action urged after threats

Twitter action urged after threats

27 July 2013 Last updated at 16:49 ET By Keith Moore BBC News Caroline Criado-Perez: Twitter complaints procedure “completely inadequate”

A petition calling on Twitter to add a “report abuse” button has received thousands of signatures.

It follows a deluge of abuse and rape threats received by Caroline Criado-Perez, who successfully campaigned for women to be included on UK banknotes.

MP Stella Creasy told the BBC she was “furious” Twitter had yet to do anything about Ms Criado-Perez’s abuse.

Twitter UK’s Tony Wang said the company was “testing ways to simplify” reporting abuse.

‘Frequently ignored’

Ms Criado-Perez, who had appeared in the media to campaign for women to feature on banknotes, said the abusive tweets began the day it was announced that author Jane Austen would appear on the newly designed £10 note.

She reported them to the police after receiving “about 50 abusive tweets an hour for about 12 hours” and said she had “stumbled into a nest of men who co-ordinate attacks on women”.

Continue reading the main story

Once again, a social network is at the centre of a storm over hateful and offensive content posted by its own users.

Twitter now faces a tricky dilemma – it has never been keen to police the messages posted by its users, and wants to be seen as a protector of free speech.

If it agrees to campaigners’ demands for a “report abuse” button on every tweet, it will then need to employ an army of monitors to respond to complaints and decide what constitutes abuse.

The company would prefer that threatening tweets were referred to the police, who in the UK have been active in pursuing social media users suspected of breaking the law.

But with a campaign for a boycott on 4 August gathering pace, Twitter will need to show it understands the pressure to make the network a safer and more polite place – and come up with ideas to make that happen.

Ms Criado-Perez, from Rutland, told the BBC she had also tried to contact Twitter’s manager of journalism and news, Mark Luckie, about the rape threats she was receiving, but he did not respond and locked his tweets to become private.

She said the form that allows Twitter users to report abuse was not adequate – particularly when such a high volume of abuse was being received. “Twitter need to be on the side of the victims,” she said.

An online petition has been started in response to the abuse Ms Criado-Perez received calling for Twitter to introduce a “report abuse” button. It had been signed by more than 9,000 people by 15:00 BST on Saturday.

Kim Graham from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, put the petition online at 09:00 BST after seeing abuse that Ms Criado-Perez had been getting. She told the BBC the “report abuse” button was something that came into her mind after finding it was “harder than it should be to report abuse”.

The petition says: “Abuse on Twitter is common; sadly too common. And it frequently goes ignored. We need Twitter to recognise that its current reporting system is below required standards.

“The report abuse button needs to be accompanied by Twitter reviewing the T&C [terms and conditions] on abusive behaviour to reflect an awareness of the complexity of violence against women, and the multiple oppressions women face. It’s time Twitter started protecting its users.”

‘Hate crime’

Ms Criado-Perez’s cause has been supported by other prominent tweeters, including the journalists Caitlin Moran and Suzanne Moore and Independent columnist Owen Jones.

Ms Moran has called for a 24-hour Twitter boycott on 4 August to try to get Twitter to come up with an “anti-troll policy”.

Labour MP Ms Creasy said: “This is not a technology crime – this is a hate crime. If they were doing it on the street, the police would act.”

She told the BBC she had been chasing Twitter for the past 24 hours but they had not yet responded to her.

“I am absolutely furious with Twitter that they are not engaging in this at all,” she said.

A Twitter spokesperson said: “The ability to report individual tweets for abuse is currently available on Twitter for iPhone and we plan to bring this functionality to other platforms, including Android and the web.

“We don’t comment on individual accounts. However, we have rules which people agree to abide by when they sign up to Twitter. We will suspend accounts that once reported to us, are found to be in breach of our rules.

“We encourage users to report an account for violation of the Twitter rules by using one of our report forms.”

The general manager of Twitter UK, Tony Wang, later tweeted that the company was “testing ways to simplify reporting, e.g. within a Tweet by using the ‘Report Tweet’ button in our iPhone app and on mobile web”.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed that “officers from Camden have received an allegation regarding comments made via a social network, that was reported on 25 July”.

He added that “inquiries continue” but so far there had been “no arrests”.

There have been some high profile arrests related to celebrities abused on Twitter, including a teenager arrested over the abuse of Great Britain’s Olympic diver Tom Daley.

Guidelines published by the Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer in June said there should be a “high threshold for prosecution in cases involving communications which may be considered grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or false”.

View the original article here

Twitter action urged after threats