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How the Syrian Electronic Army Hacked The Onion
Nerval's Lobster writes "For comedy publication The Onion, a recent cyber-attack by the Syrian Electronic Army was no laughing matter. The SEA managed to compromise The Onion's Twitter account, plastering it with insults aimed at the United Nations, Israel, and Syrian rebels. 'UN retracts report of Syrian chemical weapon use: "Lab tests confirm it is Jihadi body odor,"' read a typical (and perhaps one of the more printable) ones. When the Tweets appeared, some Onion Twitter-followers questioned whether the newspaper was playing some sort of elaborate meta-joke, perhaps riffing on a recent series of high-profile cyber attacks. But the SEA was serious, and so was The Onion about flushing the attackers from its systems. In a new posting on theonion.github.io, the publication's IT crew details exactly what happened. On May 3, attackers from the SEA fired off phishing emails to Onion employees, at least one of whom clicked on a malicious link. From there, the attackers compromised a handful of systems. 'In total, the attacker compromised at least 5 accounts,' the account concluded. 'The attacker logged in to compromised accounts from 46.17.103.125 which is also where the SEA hosts a website.' But following the crisis, The Onion couldn't resist swiping at its attackers. 'Syrian Electronic Army Has a Little Fun Before Inevitable Upcoming Deaths at Hands of Rebels,' read the headline for a May 6 article that described a fictional massacre of the SEA in gruesome detail."
They released a UI enhancement Javascript library.
In related Onion news: We Were Going To Take Over The ‘Onion’ Website, But It’s A Real Mess With All Those Ads I'm not sure what the SEA really expected to accomplish here.
most two-factor authentication schemes i've seen so far require users to have either a physical dongle that provides keycodes, a mobile phone capable of receiving SMS messages, or a smartphone app.
most users i've seen can't be bothered to take this "inconvenient" step to secure their accounts. i hope Google makes the two-factor login a requirement soon, but they're going to get some pretty tough pushback from the lazy.
And the USA the legitimate oppressor of the world.
Why would they target the Onion!? Do they not 'get it'?
Chances are, no, they seriously don't get it.
Think about it: In that area of the world, news is generally controlled by official government channels. I'm talking supposedly-legitimate sources which unironically use definitive, unambiguous phrases like "The Truth Of $NATION", "$NATION's One Voice", or The Onion's own "$NATION's Finest News Source" as their taglines. Then, add in the fact that a lot of what The Onion and other humor sources (i.e. The Daily Show) do are largely unheard of in these nations; direct mockery of the government is the sort of thing that gets a guy and his whole family beheaded in public out there. They might plain and simply not be used to that manner of humor.
So, without the benefit of a culture that's accustomed to ironic sarcasm and mocking tones in print, combined with a lack of knowledge of how the US really works, and definitely without understanding the counter-cultural significance of The Onion in the first place, I can imagine them looking at this site which boldly proclaims itself to be "America's Finest News Source", presenting articles in a very dry, almost authoritative tone (to people unfamiliar with the English language or American culture), and seemingly chock full of news, and assuming this is a real thing and that attacking it will help get their message out to the important, news-reading people of what they consider to be the most powerful nation in the world.
How would the Onion look then?
Prescient?
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Boy the Onion writers are just phoning it in now.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Personally I just dont' want google to have my mobile phone number. They know too much already.
Perhaps the revolution ISN'T for the good of the Syrian people, but good for the US, EU, and Israel?
There's no reason it can't be both, there's also no reason to mod your factual observations as "flamebait". We are going to have to wait a decade or more to find out if the "Arab spring" changed anything for the better, I clearly recall people (as opposed to governments) in the west celebrating because Mugabe had come to power in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), Stevie Wonder went so far as to sing about it. Their moral reasoning was sound at that time in history, but with 20/20 hindsight Stevie's claim that "Peace has come to Zimbawe" sounds foolish.
The political cynic in me thinks that western governments see two enemies fighting each other on their own territory. they are in no hurry to pull them apart.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
If any one of your contacts has your phone number with your gmail address in their phone as a single (or merged) contact, google already knows your mobile phone number.
Why would they target the Onion!? Do they not 'get it'?
The tyrant fears the laugh more than the assassin's bullet. -- Robert Heinlein
1600s? BP and Royal Dutch Shell supporting a regime which didn't exist even before THEY existed?
Now THAT'S planning for the future!
Do tell how the Assad family is descended from the Ottoman Empire.
This will be interesting.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
This is wildly incorrect. You could tell form their posts that the Syrians knew exactly what the Onion was and were actually writing Onion-style headlines to promote their point of view. "UN admonishes Syria for getting in way of Jewish missles," that sort of thing.
Middle-East != North Korea
You and your family would not get beheaded in public under Assad for talking against the regime. It is quite ironic that Assad was actually quite a progressive leader compared to the US allies in the region (USA's Best Friends Forever Saudi Royal Family and Mubarak). While my whole heart goes to anyone seeking true democracy, a lot of the reason why Syria is in such a mess is because Assad is an Iranian ally supporting Hezbollah, and Israel and the West want that support for Hezbollah and Iran to go.
Of course now Assad has crossed the line and there is only one way this will stop, he must go one way or the other. Only thing US and Israel didn't seem to calculate at first is that what's going to come after him is much, much less friendly. They're just starting to realize that now. As one commentator put it, "The Muslim Brotherhood leadership is waiting in hotels in Turkey, ready to take the reins once Assad is gone". Once again, we've played a role in overthrowing a secular regime and replacing it with an Islamist one. We're getting good at this.
However you are right that many middle-easterners "don't get" western humor. Some see things like that and believe it is serious. Also, while here in the west you can openly joke about religion and God (even Christianity), they would not think those kind of things are funny. As usual, we say we're right and they're wrong. Truth is it's just a cultural difference and cultures are bound to clash in an open world with an open internet. It's not just between Westerners and Middle-Easterners though. I'm sure Chinese people look at American shows and think "WTF is honey boo boo? Jersey shore? USA dogs!"
How would the Onion look then?
Smugly pleased.
As opposed to al-Nusra rebels? You know, the guys who are blowing up car bombs in Damascus, killing primarily civilians? The ones whose officer corps consists largely of al-Qaeda appointees?