Tag Archives: Syrian Electronic Army

Complexity as the Enemy of Security

May 27, 2014

Late last month, hackers allied with the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) compromised the Web site for the RSA Conference, the world’s largest computer security gathering. The attack, while unremarkable in many ways, illustrates the continued success of phishing attacks that spoof top executives within targeted organizations. It’s also a textbook example of how third-party content providers can be leveraged to break into high-profile Web sites.

Who Built the Syrian Electronic Army?

August 28, 2013

A hacking group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) has been getting an unusual amount of press lately, most recently after hijacking the Web sites of The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others. But surprisingly little light has been shed on the individuals behind these headline-grabbing attacks. Beginning today, I’ll be taking a closer look at this organization, starting with one of the group’s core architects.

Washington Post Site Hacked After Successful Phishing Campaign

August 15, 2013

The Washington Post acknowledged today that a sophisticated phishing attack against its newsroom reporters led to the hacking of its Web site, which was seeded with code that redirected readers to the Web site of the Syrian Electronic Army hacker group. According to information obtained by KrebsOnSecurity, the hack began with a phishing campaign launched over the weekend that ultimately hooked one of the paper’s lead sports writers.