By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:
The US Marines recruiting site joins the ranks of The New York Times as yet another website hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army. The SEA is a group of hackers that side with Assad. They hack into sites and replace original content with banners and posts that support Assad and reject the rebels.
The New York Times was hit twice in a single week. Twitter and HuffPost have also been recently attacked. Earlier in the year SEA hacked into the AP Twitter site and posted a news report that the White House had been bombed and that President Obama had been injured.
The weak link is Melbourne IT, the source of the servers. SEA accesses sites through Melbourne and then quickly makes the switch.
In some cases it takes hours to make the correction.
Melbourne IT took responsibility for the NYT - but given the continued barrage of successful hackings it seems clear that Melbourne has not adequately sealed their servers.
The Syrian Electronic Army wrote a note to ABC News saying "When we hacked media we do not destroy the site but only publish on it if possible, or publish an article [that] contains the truth of what is happening in Syria ... So if the USA launch attack on Syria we may use methods of causing harm, both for the U.S. economy or other." Excuse the grammar and syntax, this is a direct quote.
It is annoying, infuriating and frustrating - but the hacking damage could potentially be much worse. SEA is just trying to make a point - they are focusing on content, not destroying or taking over the site.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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