Syrian Electronic Army Hacks Washington Post: ‘The Media Is Always Lying’

The Washington Post’s mobile website was briefly hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army on Thursday.

Visitors were greeted with pop-up messages containing anti-U.S. and anti-Saudi propaganda, such as, “US govt is training the terrorists to kill more Syrians,” and, “Saudi Arabia and its allies are killing hundreds of Yemens people everyday!”

A message asserting “the media is always lying” and a signature from the Syrian Electronic Army were also included:

 

This is not the first time Syrian Electronic Army hackers have littered news websites with pop-up messages. A November 2014 hack hit media organizations including Forbes, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, the UK Telegraph, Italy’s La Repubblica, and CNBC. That attack was carried out by hacking into an Internet domain management system called Gigya, which was used by all of the affected websites.

The SEA’s highest-profile stunt was an April 2013 Twitter message, delivered by hijacking the account of the Associated Press, claiming that a bomb had been detonated at the White House.  This message spread fast and far enough to shake up the financial markets.

More recently, in March 2015, the Syrian Electronic Army took credit for an attack on five web hosting services it claimed were “supporting terrorist websites.”

The Washington Post, which has been targeted by the SEA for previous mischief, reports the group claims to be “a loose collective of hackers who support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,” with a penchant for “targeting media organizations it perceives as hostile to the Syrian regime.”

“Some investigations suggested that they were somehow linked to the Assad government, and may not be based in Syria,” the Post added.