The New York Post is the latest media outlet to be targeted by Syrian Electronic Army, with the hacker group temporarily taking control of the publication’s social media accounts.
The online activists successfully took over the New York Post’s Facebook account before posting SEA-related material on Tuesday, and also gained access to a number of employees’ Twitter accounts, according to a post on the group’s website.
A number of journalist’s were affected, with a tweet on reporter Mike Puma’s account stated “Syrian Electronic Army was here”.
The New York Post has not revealed any more details of the hack, though has since regained control over its social media accounts.
The SEA also compromised the Twitter feed and Facebook account of social media management company Social Flow. The firm stated on Tuesday that the hack was the result of a phishing attack which granted the hackers access to its accounts.
A tweet from Social Flow’s official account read: “Today an employee’s email account was compromised in a phishing attack. As a result, our Twitter and FB accounts were compromised.”
Social Flow added that no customer access or data was compromised, and the firm “immediately took our service offline” as part of security controls.
The SEA has succeeded in hacking into the social media accounts of a number of high profile media firms, including the Guardian and Channel 4 in recent weeks, while other media outlets such as BSkyB and Reuters have been on the receiving end of attacks in recent months.
Although the hacks have mostly resulted in the defacing of Twitter or Facebook accounts, in some instances the hacks have had wider repercussions. False information posted on the Associated Press Twitter feed led to financial markets falling sharply, highlighting the danger of social media monitoring tools employed by traders.
Twitter has since made moves to allay security concerns by introducing two step authentication, thoughquestions remain over whether this will stop attacks.
