"Syrian Electronic Army" Hacks Microsoft and Xbox Twitter Accounts

[Alex Co]

"Syrian Electronic Army" Hacks Microsoft and Xbox Twitter Accounts

Three Microsoft-owned Twitter accounts were hacked earlier today and an internal email was even shared publicly online.

If you're following the official Microsoft News, Xbox and Xbox Support Twitter accounts, you might have noticed odd tweets from the lot earlier today. Long story short, the three accounts were hacked by a group named the "Syrian Electronic Army, which tweeted the following message via the official Xbox Twitter [http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=96701414&postcount=1], "Syrian Electronic Army Was Here via @Official_SEA16 #SEA"

If that wasn't enough, the group then hacked the official Microsoft News Twitter and even publicly shared an internal email between Microsoft employees [https://twitter.com/Official_SEA16/status/422099852948824064] regarding the breach.

At the time of this post, all three hacked Twitter accounts are once again in the control of Microsoft. This latest hack comes just weeks after a hacker group called "DERP" attacked and brought down the servers [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130941-Update-Hackers-Bring-Down-LoL-DoTA-2-Blizzard-EA-Servers]for League of Legends, EA, and Blizzard due to an alleged feud with a Twitch streamer.

It begs to be asked, but why do this in the first place? What is the group trying to accomplish? Is this a show of power or just a group of people fooling around?

Source: NeoGAF [http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=749756]


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[WashAran]

They do it for the attention, and sadly enough we keep on giving them attention.

 

[Reed Spacer]

I laughed.

Does this make me a bad person?

It's Microsoft.

Who cares?

 

[major_chaos]

I laughed.

Does this make me a bad person?

It's Microsoft.

Who cares?

This is why they do it. The hatred of big companies has become so common, fiery, and irrational that people like SEA and and DERP know they have an easy way to get both attention and get a certain portion of netizens to love them.

 

[Reed Spacer]

I laughed.

Does this make me a bad person?

It's Microsoft.

Who cares?

This is why they do it. The hatred of big companies has become so common, fiery, and irrational that people like SEA and and DERP know they have an easy way to get both attention and get a certain portion of netizens to love them.

Its not so much hatred as apathy. Microsoft stopped meaning anything to me a decade ago. If they didn't have a stranglehold on what sort of OS I choose to put on my system (IE: "Windows, or fuck you"), then perhaps I'd care more.

For now, I simply smile smugly.

And eat sushi.

 

[Atmos Duality]

This is why they do it. The hatred of big companies has become so common, fiery, and irrational that people like SEA and and DERP know they have an easy way to get both attention and get a certain portion of netizens to love them.

Yup. They're "loved" by the anonymous masses.
Through sheer statistical exposure, someone is bound to blindly support their other operations based on this, I guess?
Mission accomplished?

 

[Sofus]

I would like to think that they did it to prove a point, which hopefully is that we need more focus on security aswell as what information we leave lying around.

Hackers usually only hack stuff for the sake of hacking it. They do it for the same reason that people do other difficult things... why would someone climb a mountain? why would someone who often runs a marathon start to participate in a triathlon?

The other reason why I hope people hack things is in order to get some attention on a security problem. Companies often ignore it when some random hacker who has a personal interest in getting the problem fixed, informs them about the problem in question.

If the intent was to take information then they aren't hackers... but people seem to have forgotten that there is a difference.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Whatever the reason, I always find it hilarious.

Until I can't play my PS3 for a while.

 

[Albino Boo]

Syrian Electronic Army is a part of the Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran political grouping. It used to operate from Syria itself but as government control deteriorated its now largely works from the Hezbollah controlled part of Lebanon. They are tasked with spreading propaganda of the Syrian regime and generally disrupting the internet. However that said, this being the internet, it could well be some muppets from 4chan using the name.

 

[Souplex]

Just the twitter accounts?
My debit card information is safe?
Good.

 

[Clowndoe]

Just the twitter accounts?
My debit card information is safe?
Good.

Could be both, though, so no. Your money is not safe, really.

 

[webkilla]

Considering the civil war going on in Syria, you have to wonder why these jokers dont focus their attention on that?

 

[Therumancer]

It's likely a display of power in this case, given the intentional invocation of Syria. Internet trolls and jokesters tend to do things closer to "DERP" or "Lulzsec" in identifying themselves to make it clear they don't have a political, nationalist, or theocratic agenda which might scare people on an unintended level.

Like it or not companies like Sony, Microsoft, and others have incredibly powerful security systems which is why this kind of thing doesn't happen every day, and when it does it gets attention. Indeed these companies also contract their know how for designing software and systems for governments and major businesses all around the world. "Tagging" a system like this is pretty much Syrians engaging in electronic terrorism, by showing that they can get into these
kinds of systems. Even if they arguably could do so long before now, the point is the public display of that ability and what it potentially means if they decided to start going on an electronic rampage.

In short it doesn't seem like the MO of more harmless or anti-corporate phranksters.

All told I was kind of waiting to see things like this, and while I'm about ready to say "I told you so", it hasn't yet gotten to the point I've in the past suggested it would. As I've said before, Muslims are not an inherently inferior people, being just as smart and capable as we are, even if their idealogy is warped and based on militant spiritualism. They can play all the same kinds of games, and learn all the things we can, as well as understand and exploit weaknesses within our society, and do things like play to the media as an efficient method of stopping effective military retaliation. I've always found it kind of ironic that the people I typically argue with and who call me a racist, are usually the ones who ultimately take the position that the people we're talking about simply cannot operate on this kind of level so there is no reason to be concerned about it. Years ago there was a lot being said about Muslim networks through universities and such helping Muslims become better educated in technology and computers and such when there was previous less interest within that demographic, specifically so they could take that knowledge back to The Middle East and exploit it for purposes of terrorism and warfare. We started seeing a rise of cyberwarfare between the US and Iran in recent years with allegations of both sides planting (or trying to plant) viruses and such in each other's key systems. It was only a matter of time before the problem got to the point where you'd see enough Muslim cyberterrorists out there for them to start trying to engage more publically visible targets and intimidate the general population, with nastier versions of the antics that made groups like Anonymous famous, intended to do damage and cause inconvenience for the average citizen. Exactly this kind of thing, and even more, has been speculated on many times, though it's always been assumed this front would take place as part of the beginning of a world war with the US having China or Russia as it's dancing partner.

No need to tell me I'm a paranoid psychopath, I know what reaction I generally get here, but I just want to say that I sort of called it, and if I'm right, and the US doesn't start taking some hardcore action, things are going to get worse. This in of itself is harmless, but I think it's mostly just feeling us out and gauging the reaction and how seriously it's taken at this point.

As I've said before, I think we really needed to step up security on our universities while these conflicts existed and put some serious limitations on what we were willing to teach and to whom, as well as who we were letting be teachers and their relationship with "students" and "colleagues" from countries outside of the US. I think we effectively wound up creating a lot of the very threats we're going to wind up facing.... but again, nothing I haven't said before.

If we're all lucky I'm 100% wrong, and it will turn out this was just a group of phranksters, but as I said, that kind of claim isn't the kind of thing internet phranksters and "hacktivists" tend to do. Specifically because they don't want to bring the heat that seriously being considered a national threat would entail onto their own heads, so they are careful to not even imply that kind of motivation.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I think these people do what they do for the same reason idiots streak across full stadiums of fans during a big game: attention. This is the internet version of streaking I suppose.

 

[Terminate421]

"So they didn't steal christmas as much as...Assassinate it..."

I honestly don't get why they did that. What's the point?

 

[FalloutJack]

I think these people do what they do for the same reason idiots streak across full stadiums of fans during a big game: attention. This is the internet version of streaking I suppose.

Heh, including the arrests. And yet, while sober, these guys think this is a BRILLIANT IDEA. No consequences shall ever befall them because no one EVER catches hackers and does terrible things to them.

Mwa ha ha ha haaa...

 

[Stormwaltz]

(leaving)

 

[RA92]

I'm surprised Therumancer doesn't have his own TV show by now.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

If they didn't have a stranglehold on what sort of OS I choose to put on my system (IE: "Windows, or fuck you"), then perhaps I'd care more.

lolwut? There's OS X from Apple and literally HUNDREDS of Linux distros. Both of which are at least competent as competitors to Windows. So yeah, Microsoft doesn't have a "stranglehold" on anything. It is, of course, true that they hold a sizable chunk of the OS market but that doesn't take away any of the options that you have in terms of OS'.