ISIS fear: FBI warns military to 'scrub' social media in anticipation of homeland attacks
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have delivered the most serious warning to date about possible ISIS strikes against domestic military targets, warning personnel to remove sensitive social media information, ABC News reported.
The two agencies have issued a bulletin, strongly advising US military personnel to take precautions against personal information posted online that individuals connected to Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL].
READ MORE: ‘One of deadliest attacks’: 50 ISIS
militants reported dead in Kobani assault
The agencies responsible for domestic security “recommend
that current and former members of the military review their
online social media accounts for any information that might serve
to attract the attention of ISIL and its
supporters,"ABC cited the federal bulletin as saying,
advising that military personnel "routinely exercise
operational security” when using online social media.
According to the report, several members in US special operations
and other military branches said they had “deactivated,
scrubbed or locked” their social media accounts at the
urging of security officers as the Pentagon opened an air
campaign against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria.
The domestic security agencies believe that “individuals
overseas” are looking to enlist “like-minded individuals
willing and capable” to carry out attacks on “current and
former US-based members of the United States military."
In late September, ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani called
for attacks against military personnel in the US and Europe.
READ MORE: Syria says US-led strikes failed to weaken ISIS
In the same month, the FBI warned in yet another bulletin that “extremist hacker groups” may organize cyber-attacks against the United States. It warned of “recent nonspecific and probably aspirational threats made on social media platform to carry out cyber as well as physical attacks in response to the US military presence in the Middle East.”
