The US Military’s Central Command – Centcom – was the victim of a “hack” of its public Twitter feed and YouTube account, apparently by sympathizers of Islamic State identifying themselves as the “cybercaliphate.” But the damage done was likely less substantive than it first appeared. The accounts were suspended after about 40 minutes.

(image: BBC)

While the hack was embarrassing – coming as it did while President Obama happened to be making a speech at a conference on cybersecurity – officials said operational networks were not compromised and what had occurred amounted to “cybervandalism”.

As Fred Kaplan writes at Slate, “the proper response is a shrug.” These types of attacks are common, he says.

Hackers try to launch assaults on Defense Department computers and networks hundreds of times a day. Sometimes they succeed; once in a while, the breach is serious. This one is not.

The Centcom hack also comes after the hacker group Anonymous had targeted jihadist web sites in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack.

* WORLD * 10,000 French troops will bolster police from tomorrow in guarding sensitive locations around Paris and elsewhere, as authorities say a terror threat is “still present” in the wake of last week’s violent events. The French parliament is also apparently preparing to debate its own version of a “Patriot Act” covering domestic security.

In the US, the White House admitted it had made a mistake in not sending a higher profile representative to Sunday’s solidarity march in Paris. It certainly underestimated the optics of the decision and the reaction to it.

Meanwhile, the staff of Charlie Hebdo is preparing to publish a special issue on Wednesday with a planned press run of three million copies, in sixteen languages.

* POLITICS *  Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin GOP congressman who ran for the vice-presidency last time out, said he wouldn’t be a candidate in the 2016 race. Meanwhile, the top half of the 2012 ticket, Mitt Romney, appears to be moving his pre-campaign organization into a higher gear. Maggie Haberman and James Hohmann write at Politico that Romney’s time frame for a decision on a third run is “weeks, not months”.

Before ruling himself out, though, Ryan still had one last chance on Sunday to poke another potential candidate, Chris Christie, during the Packers’ defeat of the Cowboys. 

* BUSINESS * Oil prices slid again, with Brent off 5 per cent on the day, amid a warning by Goldman Sachs of yet further falls to come.

* MEDIA * CNN reached an agreement with the FAA to explore the use of drones in news gathering.

Lawyers for New York Times reporter James Risen said he will not be called to testify this week in a trial at which he could have been pressed to reveal sources for his 2006 book, State of War.

* SPORTS * Cristiano Ronaldo won the Ballon D’Or for the second straight season. The award means that, since 2008, the honor of being recognized as the world’s greatest player has been accorded only to him or Lionel Messi. The BBC reported that somehow, England manager Roy Hodgson didn’t vote for either of them.

College football’s inaugural championship playoff game ended with Ohio State beating Oregon 42-20. CNN writes about how ESPN’s $7.3bn bet paid off, while Mother Jones looks at who’s getting rich (hint – it’s not the players).

* CULTURE * Finally, the enterprising folks who run the EastSide Arts Festival in Belfast are apparently trying to get one of the city’s favorite sons, a certain George Ivan Morrison, to play an open-air show on the street where he lived and made world-famous, around the time of his 70th birthday this summer.

It’s a great idea, and could maybe even prompt other similar “street cred” shows: how about Simon & Garfunkel re-uniting – again – ‘neath the span of the 59th Street Bridge; The Foo Fighters paying tribute to Gerry Rafferty on Baker Street; an explosive performance by The Jam in Wardour Street; the remaining members of The Ramones could stop traffic at the corner of 53rd and 3rd, or The Boss braving the cold on 10th Avenue.