14 DAY TRIAL // The Syrian Electronic Army has targeted numerous media organizations – including AP, BBC and Reuters – in most cases because of the Syria-related news they publish. The hackers’ latest target has been the New York Post, whose social media accounts they’ve compromised after hacking SocialFlow.
However, the takeover of several New York Post Twitter accounts isn’t about what the company has published. Instead, the hackers say the attack comes in response to Twitter shutting down their accounts.
One of the group’s members has told The Daily Beast that Twitter has shut down 15 of their accounts. A few days ago, they threatened the social media company.
“We warned that we will hack the Twitter accounts of the mass media if Twitter closed our accounts again. They closed our accounts, and so we have implemented the threat,” SEA the Shadow told The Daily Beast.
On the other hand, even if Twitter stops shutting down their accounts, the group’s operations will continue.
“If Twitter stops deleting our [Syrian Electronic Army] accounts, we will not stop hacking, because there are other reasons,” the hacker explained.
For example, the attack against AP – which impacted the stock market – was launched to cause damage to the US economy.
The recent hacks on Truecaller, Tango.me and Viber were carried out in an effort to gather information, which has been reportedly sent to the Syrian government.
The Syrian Electronic Army – which apparently comprises 9 students – supports the Syrian government, but clarifies that it’s not sponsored by it.
The collective’s current Twitter account, @Official_SEA16, has been online for over two weeks. It remains to be seen how long it will take Twitter to suspend this one as well.