Military wives thought they got death threats from ISIS. They were actually from Russian hackers.

Someone typing on computer.
(Image credit: iStock.)

When Army wife Angela Ricketts received a death threat in February 2015, it looked like it was from the Islamic State.

It turned out to be a Facebook message from Russian hackers.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Back in 2015, news outlets covered CyberCaliphate as if it were run by ISIS sympathizers. Ricketts, who wrote a memoir about being an infantry wife, was quoted in a CNN piece about it. And up until AP contacted her and many of the other women, they were still convinced the messages came from ISIS.

A digital hit list provided by cyber security company Secureworks shows a different story. A Russian hacker was trying to break into the wives' email accounts around the same time they got the threats, which points to a connection, AP reports.

The same group appears to be responsible for leaking the emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta. Read more at The Associated Press.

Explore More

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.