Homeland Security announces new anti-terror measures

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a series of new anti-terror measures in response to the recent attacks in Paris.

New security measures include extra security at a larger number of government buildings across the country, increased airport security and a larger number of random airport searches.

Greater security at the federal buildings in Chicago and other major cities began in October of 2013, and will now be expanded to other locations around the country. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said the precise locations receiving enhanced security is law-enforcement sensitive, will vary and shift from location to location and will be constantly re-evaluated. The security is provided by the Federal Protective Service.

At O'Hare and other U.S. airports, the Transportation Security Administration is conducting an immediate review of screening safeguards to determine if any additional safeguards are needed. Last week, TSA increased random searches at major U.S. airports.

The announcement came hours after Twitter and YouTube accounts operated by the U.S Central Command, the military group in charge of counter-terror operations, were taken over by hackers claiming to be from the Islamic State.

The hacking took place while President Obama was announcing legislation to protect Americans from cyberattacks. Pro-ISIS messages covered the Twitter and YouTube pages.

"We are looking into this seriously," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "It is a significant difference between a large data breach and a twitter hacking."

But the hacking's official connection to ISIS has not yet been confirmed.

"It could have been anybody," says Mark Rasch, a cyber privacy expert. "It doesn't really matter that much if it was ISIS. It does matter that a group calling itself ISIS taking credit for it. The goal here is to cause fear and over reaction. We need to react appropriately to it but not over react to it. The fact that the Twitter feed for CENTCOM was hacked is not that significant. If the documents themselves were stolen from CENTCOM, that is significant."

In February, President Obama will convene a counter-terror security summit at the White House.

U.S. Military officials said the apparent terrorist takeover of the social media accounts did not result in a breach of classified information, even though the ISIS postings listed military officers names and looked as though they were displaying strategic plans.

U.S. Central Command released a statement Monday afternoon affirming CENTCOM's operational military networks were not compromised and calling the attack "purely a case of cybervandalism." It stressed that the social media accounts "reside on commercial, non-Defense Department servers."

CENTCOM also said the information and maps hackers posted, claiming they were DOD contingency plans for conflict with China and North Korea, was not actually classified information.