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NYT, Twitter and HuffPo Attacked by Syrian Electronic Army
[WSJ] A pro-Syrian government group appeared to attack more than 10 websites, including Twitter, the New York Times...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... [NYT -2.93%] and HuffingtonPost.com, said security researchers citing digital evidence. The attacks by the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of hackers that supports Syrian  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Lord of the Baath... , come as the U.S. is considering action against Syria. In the past, the group has taken action against media organizations and websites it believes are sympathetic to Syrian rebels. The websites, including the Huffington Post's U.K. website, appeared to be compromised Tuesday by the group, said a security researcher who had seen digital evidence. HuffingtonPost confirmed the attack and said there was a "minimal disruption of service." The hackers, meantime, repeatedly claimed they had taken over Twitter's Internet address, though they appeared to be unsuccessful. The social media site never appeared to lose service. (The hackers used their own Twitter account to claim they had hacked the social-media website.) But for a brief time Tuesday evening, twitter.com, one of the most trafficked U.S. websites, at least appeared to be owned by a group called SEA, also the hacking group's acronym. The website appeared to be registered to sea@sea.sy, according to a security researcher with knowledge of the digital evidence. Multiple security researchers with firsthand knowledge of digital evidence said all of the websites hacked shared a common feature: They were registered through a company in Australia. The firm, Melbourne IT, said the credentials of one of its resellers were used to access its systems. The hackers were then able to change the records for several websites, a company front man said. The company then locked those records from future changes after the problem was resolved, the front man said. Similar digital evidence showed the New York Times's website had been hacked by the SEA, said Johannes Ullrich, a cybersecurity expert at the SANS Institute in Washington. Ullrich, who doesn't work for the Times, found digital evidence that shows the newspaper's website was redirecting to a different server. When Ullrich, who has tracked the hacker group in the past, checked which new server nytimes.com directs to, he received the message "Hacked by SEA. Connection closed by foreign host." The Syrian Electronic Army has targeted several media organizations in the past, including the Washington Post, Rooters and the Onion, a satirical newspaper. When the SEA hacked the Twitter account of the News Agency that Dare Not be Named earlier this year, it posted a false headline to the account that said the White House had been attacked. The hoax caused U.S. stock markets to briefly lose $200 billion in value. The website was down for several hours. As of Tuesday night, the Times was publishing on a different Web address. Posted by: trailing wife 2013-08-28 |
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