Five devices were stolen, thief cooperates with the govt

Feb 24, 2015 14:30 GMT  ·  By

The theft of five laptop computers by a former civilian employee of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), one of the unified commands in the US military, does not constitute a data breach at the moment, a spokesman of the Command said.

The computing devices were stolen back in April 2013 by Scott Duty, who worked as a property accountability manager in the communications directorate until May 2013.

Hackers claim possession of sensitive data

Aged 48, Duty was indicted in the theft of the laptops on February 12, 2015. The document revealed no information about a possible data breach and mentioned only the theft of the computers, whose value was estimated at $5,499 / €4,852.

Fear that unauthorized persons might have gained access to sensitive information from CENTCOM arose when hackers calling themselves Cyber Caliphate hijacked the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the organization.

One reason for the success of the attack could have been that the profiles were not protected with two-factor authentication (2FA) and their handlers fell for a targeted phishing scam.

For a brief period of time, 30 minutes, Cyber Caliphate posted pro-ISIS messages on CENTCOM’s social accounts, as well as links to documents with details about retired US Army generals, military plans in hot areas around the globe (China, North Korea, Africa, Indonesia, and the Caspian area).

Later, CENTCOM issued a statement saying that their servers were not breached, informing that the data published by the hackers was not classified.

Indictment refers only to theft charges

Patrick Courtney, Duty’s attorney, told The Tampa Tribune that his client offered his cooperation to the government with regards to the theft.

“There is no indication of a data breach at this point. As cases proceed, we always remain open to new information and evidence. However, at this point, the indictment only alleges theft of government computers,” CENTCOM spokesman William Daniels told the publication.

The information present on the five stolen laptops remained undisclosed, but given the position Duty had at CENTCOM, it is unlikely that it consisted of sensitive military details. An arraignment has been scheduled for Duty sometime in the next two weeks.