Syrian Hacktivists Hit Guardian Twitter Feeds

Pro-Assad hacktivist group takes over 11 Twitter feeds belonging to British news group, decries lies and slander about Syria.

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The Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) announced Sunday that it took over 11 Twitter feeds belonging to Britains
Guardian
newspaper, including its book, film, photography and travel feeds, as well as multiple journalists accounts. It also posted passwords -- composed of 15 randomized characters -- it claimed were for four of the compromised accounts.
By Monday, many of the accounts were suspended by Twitter, although SEA appeared to still be compromising additional accounts, including the
Guardians
business feed. Follow the Syrian Electronic Army ... Follow the truth! read a message posted to some compromised Twitter accounts.
We are aware that a number of Guardian Twitter accounts have been compromised and we are working actively to resolve this, said a Guardian News & Media spokeswoman via email. She declined to comment on how the accounts had been compromised.
[ Worried about your Twitter account getting hacked? Read
Twitter Trouble: 9 Social Media Security Tips
. ]
The SEA said the disruptions were made to protest the newspapers lies and slander about Syria, according to a
statement posted to the groups website
. Some accounts also had their profiles changed to display a graphic of an eagle bearing the
flag of the Syrian Arab Republic
, which is used by parties loyal to the current Syrian regime, which is led by President Bashar al-Assad and the Baath Party.
A two-year civil war in Syria has claimed an estimated 70,000 lives to date. The White House in recent days said that U.S. intelligence reports have suggested that the nerve agent sarin may have been used on a small scale by Assad supporters against their opponents,
reported
the
Guardian
.
The SEA has previously attacked news organizations -- including the BBC and Qatari-backed al-Jazeera TV -- over coverage that the group deemed to be unfavorable to the current Assad regime. Tuesday, notably, the SEA posted a hoax tweet via an Associated Press Twitter feed
saying that President Obama had been injured in explosions
at the White House. The tweet has been blamed for triggering a temporary downturn in the stock market.
The AP has yet to confirm how its Twitter accounts were compromised, although some news reports said that an
SEA-conducted phishing campaign
was responsible. Security experts, however, have said that the group has employed a variety of account-takeover tactics. In many cases, the SEA carries out their attacks in a manner that is difficult to detect, said Ted Ross, the executive technologist at HP Securitys Office of Advanced Technology, in a recent blog post rounding up
whats known about the Syrian Electronic Army
.
The groups tactics also continue to evolve. The SEA has kind of shifted from actively defacing websites they perceive hostile to the Syrian regime to mostly compromising Twitter accounts of media organizations, Helmi Noman, a senior researcher at Toronto Universitys Citizen Lab,
told
NBC News.
The AP account compromise lead to reports that Twitter is now
testing a two-factor authentication system internally
, which it plans to roll out at an unspecified date. But security experts have warned that such a system
still wouldnt protect Twitter users
from having their accounts compromised via malware or phishing attacks.
The SEA has recently been engaging in a cat-and-mouse game with Twitter, which has been suspending the groups own accounts -- recently named @Official_SEA followed by a number -- almost as quickly as theyve been used to boast of compromised targets.
That level of account churn has left the Syrian Electronic Army vulnerable to its opponents. The Syrian Electronic Army use to be Pro-Assad, since he used chemical weapons against our brothers and sisters, no more, Assad is a Ass! read a Saturday tweet from the @Official_SEA7 account Saturday. OK so you need to unfollow @SEA_Official8 and @SEA_Official7, the correct one is @Official_SEA7.
But a message posted Monday to @Official_SEA12 -- an account registered late Sunday and cross-referenced from the SEAs own website -- said that @Official_SEA7 was a fake account.

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Syrian Hacktivists Hit Guardian Twitter Feeds