ISIS Affiliate Publishes Hit List Of Mass. State Employees
BOSTON (CBS) - A cyber-affiliate of ISIS has published a hit list with the names of Massachusetts government employees.
The list, which had 264 names on it according to the Boston Globe, was posted to social media over the weekend by a group called United Cyber Caliphate.
State Police said there is no intelligence suggesting these are credible threats.
The group also released two other lists naming government employees in Rhode Island and Chicago.
"The posted lists were accompanied by images with text indicating a coming threat to the two states and that city. The inference is obviously a call for extremists and terrorists to commit violent acts against government employees," State Police spokesman Dave Procopio said in a statement Monday.
"The lists appear to have been drawn from publicly available, open source sites, and the Massachusetts list has predominately work addresses and phone numbers next to the names. Many of the employees work in some sort of fiscal or budgetary capacity, which suggests the names were captured from an online posting or database relating to fiscal affairs or conferences."
Governor Charlie Baker's office said they're monitoring the situation with the FBI, Joint Terrorism Task Force, and other state officials.
"In this particular case we do not believe there is a credible threat," Gov. Baker said.
Procopio said these online lists are common.
"There have been prior postings of military and law enforcement personnel. Here in Massachusetts, we have not seen any actual targeting of persons named in prior lists," he said.
"Typically, federal law enforcement has the duty to notify persons named on the lists. The Commonwealth Fusion Center will coordinate with the Joint Terrorist Task Force to investigate further and provide any public notifications deemed necessary."
The FBI's Boston office is also aware of the list.
"While our standard practice is to decline comment on specific operational and investigative matters, the FBI routinely notifies individuals and organizations of potential threat information collected during the course of an investigation," spokeswoman Kristen Setera said in a statement Monday.
"We perform these notifications so potential victims are aware of possible threats and take appropriate steps. Those measures may include paying close attention to your surroundings at all times, protecting personally identifiable information, and immediately calling the local authorities if you observe something suspicious."
