In an attack that sounds ripped from a dystopian sci-fi movie, hackers in support of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad exploited a vulnerability in Outbrain, a content recommendation service, to take down the websites of the Washington Post, CNN and Time. The cadre of hackers from the Syrian Electronic Army has previously compromised the site of the BBC’s weather service, enabling them to give false weather predictions via the associated Twitter account.
The Syrian Electronic Army also targeted the Washington Post earlier this week in an attempted phishing attack. Phishing emails appear to be from trusted contacts and direct recipients to click a link and provide log-in data on seemingly legitimate websites, actually run by hackers seeking access to private information. The hackers were apparently attempting to gain access to the Washington Post’s computer network.
The SEA has also attacked the Financial Times, National Public Radio and The Onion.
