14 DAY TRIAL // The Syrian Electronic Army has breached and defaced the official website of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (etilaf.org). A number of other sites related to the organization have also been targeted.
The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, also known as the Syrian National Coalition, is an organization founded in November 2012 in Doha, Qatar. It’s comprised of opposition groups in the Syrian civil war and it focuses on replacing the Bashar al-Assad government.
Considering that the Syrian Electronic Army supports the al-Assad government, it’s no surprise that the group has set sights on the National Coalition.
In addition to the organization’s main website, hackers have also defaced the sites of the Masarat Syria (masaratsyria.com) and the City Council of Daraya (darayacouncil.org).
At the time of writing, all of the targeted websites have been taken offline. A mirror of the National Coalition site defacement is available on zone-h.org.
The Syrian Electronic Army appears to be operating on a number of fronts. On one hand, they’re targeting Syrian organizations that oppose the current government. On the other hand, they also conduct campaigns against foreign entities.
On Saturday, the hacktivists announced successfully penetrating the systems of the US Central Command (CENTCOM). So far, the hackers have only published a screenshot to show that they’ve gained access to some Army Knowledge Online servers.
Experts have noted that the information obtained by the SEA appears to be unclassified and CENTCOM denies that its systems have been breached. However, the group says they’ll publish a lot of data that will demonstrate their claims.
The hacktivists have decided to focus their efforts on CENTCOM after rumors emerged that the US was considering launching cyber operations against Syria.
“SEA advises the terrorist Obama to think very hard before attempting ‘cyberattacks’ on Syria. We know what Obama is planning and we will soon make him understand that we can respond,” the hackers noted in late February.
“If his advisors think we will respond with the same kind of attacks we have been using they are mistaken. The next attack will prove that the entire US command structure was a house of cards from the start.”
In the meantime, the Syrian Electronic Army has posted a message on Twitter which suggests that they will soon reveal how much Microsoft is charging the FBI for access to user emails. This wouldn’t be the first time the group targets Microsoft. It will be interesting to see what they have in stall for us.