Three hackers allegedly associated with the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), have been charged by the US government. On Tuesday, the identities of the alleged hackers have been revealed. A bounty has been placed for the capture of two of them. The Department of Justice’s charges include “participating in a hoax regarding a terrorist attack” and “attempting to cause mutiny in the US armed forces.”
The SEA gained notoriety when it hacked into an AP Twitter account on April 2013, posting a tweet reading: “Breaking: Two explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.” They claimed responsibility in a tweet reading “Ops! @AP get owned by Syrian Electronic Army! #SEA #Syria #ByeByeObama,” from an account that has been shut down.
Stocks Plunged & Quickly Recovered on Fake @AP Tweet – @WSJMoneyBeat http://t.co/BztkN6fMT2 via @WSJ pic.twitter.com/oNllodZHNd
— Brian Hauer (@MavenTraders) May 1, 2013
Apparently, the group’s first successful hack was the Harvard University server, where a picture of Assad was uploaded onto the homepage of their website, alongside a banner that read “Syrian Electronic Army Were Here.”
Several mass media sites have also been hacked by the SEA, redirecting URLs so that visitors to their site would end up being sent to the SEA’s website.
In 2013, one hacker posted messages on Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) website using the credentials of HRW employees; one message alleged that the reports that HRW published “were false.”
“Syrian Electronic Army were here. All your reports are FALSE.”
The year before, HRW had published several reports that claimed to show that the Syrian government was involved in the commission of human rights violations.
UNICEF’s Twitter account was also targeted, with the hacker group using it to bring attention to a suicide bombing that killed 49 children. The group claimed that it was caused by “moderate” groups.
Sad @UNICEF only mentioned the massacre of 49 Homs children by US moderates when @Official_SEA16 hacked them #Syria pic.twitter.com/NYqPiN5ssi
— the Lemniscat (@theLemniscat) October 4, 2014
Microsoft’s Twitter account was also hacked.
#Microsoft #SEA pic.twitter.com/Xnzq92PbkN
— SyrianElectronicArmy (@Official_SEA16) January 11, 2014
“The tireless efforts of US prosecutors and our investigative partners have allowed us to identify individuals who have been responsible for inflicting damage on US government and private entities through computer intrusions,” said US Attorney Dana Boente in a statement. “Today’s announcement demonstrates that we will continue to pursue these individuals no matter where they are in the world.”
“These three members of the Syrian Electronic Army targeted and compromised computer systems in order to provide support to the Assad regime as well as for their own personal monetary gain through extortion,” said the FBI’s assistant director, Paul Abbate.
Of concern, are the words of Assistant Attorney General John Carlin:
“The allegations in the complaint demonstrate that the line between ordinary criminal hackers and potential national security threats is increasingly blurry.”
In his own words, it would appear that this case could be used as an excuse to make hacking activity of any sort, including hacktivism, a threat to national security. The resources allocated to deal with such “threats” will be far greater, as will be the penalties, though as Jeremy Hammond, hacktivist and FBI’s most-wanted cybercrimminal, would point out, the stakes are already exceptionally high for those who hack with “good” intentions.
Sources: VICE, Softpedia, TechWorm, al-Jazeera, IB Times, Forbes, RT, Observer
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