Newsweek's Twitter account hacked by group linked to IS

New York, Feb 11: Newsweek magazine on Tuesday was the target of a cyberattack when its Twitter account was hacked into by a group allegedly affiliated with the Islamic State (IS), who called for a "cyberjihad" against the US, published documents apparently stolen from the Pentagon and wished First Lady Michelle Obama a "Bloody Valentine's Day".

"While the US and its satellites are killing our brothers in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, we are destroying your national cybersecurity system from inside," read the text that was posted on the magazine's Twitter account by a group calling itself "CyberCaliphate" about 10:45 a.m.

The hacker -- or group of hackers -- threatened Americans, saying that "the Islamic State is already here" and that the IS is "much closer than you think".

The hackers also published a list of "brave mujahideen", documents allegedly from the Pentagon with data about US soldiers, and tweeted to the First Lady: "We're watching you, you (sic) girls and your husband!"

Finally, the hackers included the message "Je Suis IS" (I am IS) referring to the hashtag "Je Suis Charlie" created after the recent deadly terrorist attack against Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Newsweek said that all the tweets were removed about 10 or 15 minutes after being posted, when Twitter's support team regained control of the account at the request of the magazine, which said that the attackers were the same people who hacked into the accounts of singer Taylor Swift and the US Central Command.

"We apologise to our readers for anything offensive that might have been sent from our account during that period, and (we) are working to strengthen our newsroom security measures going forward," said the magazine's managing editor, Kira Bindrim, in a statement.

IANS