The hacktivist pro-Assad group known as the “Syrian Electronic Army” (SEA) briefly hijacked the Twitter feeds of TIME magazine in response to a critical description of President Assad’s candidacy for its ‘Person of the year’ award.
The SEA has tweeted from TIME’s official account: “Syrian Electronic Army was here via @Official_SEA16. Next time write a better word about the Syrian president #SEA”.
That tweet was soon deleted.
The group referred to TIME’s list of people – politicians and celebrities – selected as potential winners for “Person of the Year,” the magazine’s annual award.
Syrian President Bashar Assad is one of the candidates, while the magazine describes him as: “Syria’s ruler presided over a bloody year, shrugging off international concerns over the use of chemical weapons as the death toll of his country’s civil war has crossed 100,000.”
The voting closes on December, 4, with TIME’s Person of the Year to be announced on December 11.
The SEA also claimed interfering with the vote on the US magazine’s webpage.
TIME is not the first target of the notorious hacktivist group. The SEA, a group of hackers sympathetic to the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, also claimed responsibility for cyber-attacks on The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and Thomson Reuters.
In April, they also compromised the main Twitter account for the Associated Press. As a result of the online attack, the Associated Press – one of the most trusted sources for journalists – falsely reported that US President Obama had been injured in a surprise attack on the White House, causing a brief panic online and even causing the stock market to fall by over 150 points.
Source: bdnews24
