Pro-Iran operatives seized control of Chief Master Sergeant John Bentivegna’s account on Sunday, flooding it with anti-American propaganda — part of a wider coordinated wave of high-profile social media breaches.
By IDEA Television News Desk
Hackers with apparent ties to Iran temporarily seized control of the personal Instagram account of Chief Master Sergeant John F. Bentivegna — the top enlisted leader of the United States Space Force — for several hours on Sunday evening, posting a stream of pro-Iranian, anti-American propaganda before the account was recovered.
The compromised account, which typically carries updates for the Space Force’s enlisted rank-and-file, was transformed into a vehicle for hostile messaging, including graphics calling for America’s defeat. One video reviewed by CNN featured audio from “Hanoi Hannah” — the notorious Vietnam War radio propagandist — with a voiceover urging US soldiers to abandon the fight, accompanied by images of Ali Larijani, a senior Iranian security official killed in the early weeks of the current US-Israel-Iran conflict.
“We are working with the appropriate teams to regain access and resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”
— Chief Master Sgt. John Bentivegna, via Facebook
Bentivegna posted a warning on Facebook Sunday night, advising colleagues not to click on any links or engage with content posted from his compromised Instagram profile. A Space Force spokesperson confirmed the hack but declined to provide further details on the duration of the breach or its origin.
Meta, Instagram’s parent company, confirmed the hack and said the propaganda content was removed promptly. “Proper access has been restored to this account,” Meta said in a statement.
The breach fits a broader pattern of propaganda warfare accompanying the ongoing US-Iran conflict. In March, Iranian hackers infiltrated the personal email account of FBI Director Kash Patel, leaking old photos and correspondence. Iranian social media users have also deployed artificial intelligence to generate viral, satirical videos mocking President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the American war effort.
The hack comes days after both Wired and Reuters reported that service members deployed to war zones were being tracked and targeted using commercially available location data — a threat flagged in a letter from Oregon Senator Ron Wyden. Together, the incidents underscore the widening digital front of the conflict, where social media accounts and personal devices have become terrain as contested as any battlefield.
No cybersecurity firm has yet publicly attributed the Instagram breaches to a single coordinated operation, though the Iranian Cyber Army — a threat group with a history of high-profile account hijackings dating to 2009 — has been cited as a possible actor. The group first gained international attention by temporarily redirecting Twitter users to a pro-Iranian page before expanding its operations to target opposition figures and foreign institutions.
