'Isis hacking division' publishes personal details of US targets online urging supporters to attack those listed

General Ray Odierno, US army chief of staff, said the details published online were not obtained through a cyber attack

General Ray Odierno, US army chief of staff, said the details were not obtained through a cyber attack (Getty Images)

A list of American “targets” – including the FBI and Nasa – has been listed online by a group calling itself the Islamic State hacking division.

Details of 1,400 mostly US military and government personnel were published in a spreadsheet online urging supporters of the group, also known as Isis, to attack those listed.

The spreadsheet reportedly included names, email addresses, phone numbers, passwords, credit card numbers, and excerpts of Facebook chats.

Members of the marine corps and the state department were also among those listed.

It is unconfirmed as to whether the list actually came from the Islamic State.

A message from the group said: “We are extracting confidential data and passing on your personal information to the soldiers of the khilafah, who soon with the permission of Allah will strike at your necks in your own lands,” CNN reports.

Isis supporters urged people to “act and kill” on Twitter, posting personal details of soldiers and members of government staff.

An individual who said they were speaking for Isis told the Guardian that the information had been obtained from military and government databases.

A group calling itself the Islamic State hacking division published the details online (Getty)

But Gen Ray Odierno, army chief of staff, said this was the second or third time that such claims had been made and “whatever lists they got were not taken by any cyber-attack”.

He said that he was taking the incident seriously because “it is clear what they are trying to do”.

The Pentagon and FBI are investigating.

Marine Lt Col Jeffrey Pool, a Pentagon spokesman, said: “We don’t really have much [information] because most of the email addresses appear to be really old and passwords listed in the tweet don’t match up with our password strength requirements,” the Guardian reports.

He said that, nevertheless, a reminder was sent out to service personnel that they should limit the personal information they put on social media shortly after the list was published.

CNN reports that many of the phone numbers and email addresses on the list were not in service when tested by the television station.

Although one person, reached by phone, did confirm that they used to be in the US military, according to CNN.

He said he had been contacted by the Pentagon recently and been informed that his name was on the list.

Another individual, who was able to be reached by email, said she was a government employee and had been warned about being on the list by the military.

One of the first individuals to post the spreadsheet was Junaid Hussain, reportedly third on a CIA ‘kill list’ of Isis members and supporters.