Given the fact that in the two years that the Syrian Civil War has been raging, at least 70,000 people have died. It’s difficult not to simply laugh at the efforts of the Syrian Electronic Army as they takeover Twitter accounts of international news services. The pro-Assad ranting that has accompanied these attacks in a few cases is comparatively harmless.
While the U.N. says that 70,000 have perished in this war, many believe this estimate to be far too conservative. It also fails to import the gravity of those gravely wounded and those who have lost their homes.
Today has also seen the most declarative statement by Israel claiming that Syria has repeatedly used chemical weapons in this increasingly horrible war.
“The regime has increasingly used chemical weapons,” said Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, research commander in the intelligence directorate of the Israeli Defense Forces, echoing assertions made by Britain and France.
So what’s a little hacking? Well, for the people at Twitter it has to be a big deal. While the least deadly of pro-Assad attacks, it still has to win this battle in order for users to feel more secure. Starting with a two-factor authentication that Apple and Microsoft have recently implemented to join Google and Dropbox before them. Where you at Twitter? Does security mean so little to you? There’s only so much blaming your users for their less than secure passwords you can do.
On Sunday, the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) took over a number of Twitter accounts at CBS News which directed users to websites that then launched an attack on users’ browsers. Twitter reclaimed control of these accounts quickly and also shut down the SEA’s Twitter account.
In response, the Syrian Electronic Army registered a new Twitter account at “@Official_SEA,” which Twitter subsequently froze. Cue @Official_SEA3, which Twitter duly shut down, and so went this ridiculous case of cat and mouse.
On Monday, the Syrian Electronic Army also claimed to have taken over the Twitter accounts of both Blatter (@SeppBlatter) and the World Cup (@FifaWorldCup). Tweets from both accounts accused Blatter , the President of FIFA, of taking bribes before awarding the World Cup 2022 to the nation of Qatar, something I strongly agree with and appreciated the SEA’s efforts.
NPR, 60 Minutes, and multiple news outlets have also suffered Twitter account breaches at the hacking hands of the SEA.
