Islamic State posts online hit list of 100 US servicemen

A group calling itself Islamic State Hackers Division has posted the names. addresses, and photos of 100 US servicemen on a website and called on their followers in America to kill them.

Reuters:

The Pentagon said after the information was posted on the Internet that it was investigating the matter. "I can't confirm the validity of the information, but we are looking into it," a U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Saturday.

"We always encourage our personnel to exercise appropriate OPSEC (operations security) and force protection procedures," the official added.

In the posting, a group referring to itself as the "Islamic State Hacking Division" wrote in English that it had hacked several military servers, databases and emails and made public the information on 100 members of the U.S. military so that "lone wolf" attackers can kill them.

The New York Times reported that it did not look like the information had been hacked from U.S. government servers and quoted an unnamed Defense Department official as saying most of the information could be found in public records, residential address search sites and social media.

The Times quoted officials as saying the list appeared to have been drawn from personnel mentioned in news articles about air strikes on Islamic State. The group's forces control parts of Syria and Iraq and have been targeted in U.S.-led air strikes.

Even if this group isn't a formal part of IS, they certainly think like they do. The incendiary posting is probably only the first of many.

If this information was gleaned from online data bases, as it apparently was, just about anyone is vulnerable who is listed in phone directories, or who has a Facebook page open to the public.Internet privacy and security is becoming a bigger issue all the time and it's a good idea for all of us to take a look at information available about us on the net and decide just how much we want the world to know about us.

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