Hackers Attack The Financial Times In String Of Incidents

The Syrian Electronic Army, an anonymous hacking group, has attacked a number of major news publications in the past few months, the Financial Times being the most recent victim. The Financial Times? account on Twitter, as well as its website, were hacked on May 17, 2013, with the hacker leaving a message: ?Syrian Electronic Army Was Here? on several Twitter accounts owned by the Financial Times. Other previous victims by the hacker include The Guardian, The Onion and The Associated Press. As a response, the publication immediately informed social media users about the recent attack and suspended the @thelexcolumn account. The @FTMarkets account was also cleared of the messages left by the hacker.

The Financial Times did not say how the Syrian Electronic Army was able to hack into their online accounts but shared that they are currently working to eliminate the compromise as soon as possible. Previously, the hacking group relied on email phishing to illegally enter websites and social media accounts. The email address and password of an executive from the Financial Times were posted on his own account on Twitter for the public to see. Before the Financial Times, three accounts by the BBC were also attacked on Twitter by the same group. One account had may messages with racial and political content. In April, the NPR or National Public Radio website was also accessed, where article headlines were altered and accounts associated with NPR were entered into to post on Twitter. The attack made to 11 accounts owned by The Guardian resulted in the Syrian Electronic Army?s account being temporarily suspended. When the hacker attacked the Twitter account of The Associated Press, they left this message:

The Syrian Electronic Army is speculated to be composed of online activists and hackers who support Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria.