Briton lead suspect after US Central Command’s Twitter account is hacked (original) (raw)

The main suspect in the hacking of the US Central Command is a Briton who spent time in prison for accessing Tony Blair’s personal accounts.

Junaid Hussain, who is from Birmingham and is in his early twenties, is believed to be in Syria. Based on what appears to be his Twitter account, he has aligned himself with the jihadi group Islamic State (Isis).

Investigators say that no firm link between Hussain and the Centcom hack has been established, only that he is a good fit for the attack.

Suspicion that he was behind the hacking was first reported by veteran Reuters correspondent Mark Hosenball.

Centcom, which has its headquarters in Florida, oversees US military operations in Iraq and Syria. It had its Twitter and Facebook accounts hacked on Monday by a group describing itself as the CyberCaliphate. Slogans expressing support for Isis were displayed on the Centcom Twitter account.

Centcom described Monday’s attack as embarrassing but not a security risk.

Hussain pleaded guilty in 2012 to publishing Blair’s address book and making nuisance phone calls to a counter-terrorist hotline. He initially gained access to the email account of one of the former prime minister’s staff and through that to his address book and phone numbers.

Hussain is believed to have tweeted under the pseudonym Abu Hussain al Britani, posting tweets calling for violent attacks against Israeli diplomats and encouraging more recruits to travel to join Isis.

Alex Kassirer, an analyst with Flashpoint Global Partners, a private company that monitors extremist internet postings, told Reuters that Hussain led efforts by Isis to recruit hackers to the CyberCaliphate.