Syrian Electronic Army Defaces Skype's Facebook Page, Twitter Account, and Blog

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft's Skype team is working extra hard right now, circumventing an attack that occurred earlier today by hackers claiming to be the Syrian Electronics Army (SEA). This group apparently defaced Skype's Facebook page, Twitter page, as well as the Skype blog. The message? 'Don't use Microsoft emails (hotmail,outlook), They are monitoring your accounts and selling the data to the governments.'"

Comments

Don't do what we do

[Badooleoo]

Hack someone else to tell everyone that the governments are the bad h4x0rs.

Sounds legit.

Re:Don't do what we do

[MrDoh!]

But what if it was the NSA posting this, just to get the Syrians blamed?

Re:Don't do what we do

[Threni]

Blamed by who? To what end? Who cares? Change the password and move on. Probably a lame "social engineering" attack a la Onion. Nothing to see here.

Re:Don't do what we do

[flyneye]

It was, in retaliation for the Syrian Army putting whoopee cushions in all the company vehicles.
Where will it all end?

Re:Don't do what we do

[drinkypoo]

Hack someone else to tell everyone that the governments are the bad h4x0rs.

I know, and then next you'll tell me that stealing from the rich and giving to the poor seems suspicious because the rich stole that money from the poor to begin with, so you're just compounding stealing with stealing, right?

The truth is that hacking a target and doing nothing but leaving behind a warning message itself sends a strong message — that you are there only to send a message.

Re:Don't do what we do

[PNutts]

flat mountain dew.

Sir, you just crossed the line.

Inside job?

[ciderbrew]

The NSA sold/gave-happily MS' passwords to the S.E.A. Then told them how they are going to upgrade their password encryption or see actual relevant account information passed about.

Tinfoil is tracking you...

and that ever so tired false flag waves on

[Anonymous Coward]

Chances of anyone from Syria actually doing this... 0%. Chances of the NSA and/or other US/Five Eyes countries doing this: 100%.

Even the names they make up for their false flag BS sound exactly like something that a US government type would cook up. And Clapper submits his entry, "Syrian Electronic Army", for the win.

Most false flags are easy to spot with the "who benefits?" question. Obviously Syria has nothing to gain by attacking some lame but popular US websites. But the US and Israel sure would to have more reasons to complete their takeover of Syria.

"The Syrian Electronic Army has hacked your family pictures... defaced them with anti-US slogans. These are terrible electronic hate crimes. We must kill them for this."

And the false flag waves on.

Re:and that ever so tired false flag waves on

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, let us revisit history.

The U-boat peril

Winston Churchill once wrote that, '... the only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril'. In saying this, he correctly identified the importance of the threat posed during World War Two by German submarines (the 'Unterseeboot') to the Atlantic lifeline. This lifeline was Britain's 'centre of gravity' - the loss of which would probably have led to wholesale defeat in the war. ... Britain might have been starved into submission,...

And what was a critical factor in keeping the shipping losses by German submarine threat from growing out of control? Signals intelligence, breaking the enemy codes, Ultra intelligence decoding the messages encoded on the German Enigma code machine. With that the Allies could read the orders and reports of the German U-boat fleet.

Enigma and Ultra - the Cypher War

From the second half of 1941 onwards, information from Enigma was one of the key factors enabling the Royal Navy to divert convoys away from waiting wolf packs. Decoded messages went initially to the Royal Navy section at Bletchley Park, then, if relevant, were passed on to Submarine Tracking Room in the Admiralty and later to the HQ Western Approaches, in Liverpool. ... The gist of the information contained in the signals, carefully edited to conceal its source, was passed on to operational commanders, only a very few of the most senior of whom were let even partially into the secret of Enigma .

The Enigma material, known as Ultra , was, of course, combined with intelligence from a wide variety of other sources, including HF/DF and wireless intercepts and reconnaissance reports, into a body of information known collectively as "SIGINT".

The effect of the improved flow of intelligence information was apparent during the second half of 1941. Increasing numbers of convoys were being diverted away from waiting U-boats. In July, for example, not a single convoy was sighted by the Germans over a period of three weeks, and during July and August monthly sinkings went below 100,000 tons, the lowest for over a year.

It would have been fairly trivial for the Germans to have rendered Enigma unreadable, possibly for the duration of the war, by a number of means they had readily at hand and could have implemented with simple commands. The result would have been at best a much longer and bloodier war. The result could very easily have been either a stalemate, or even a loss by the Allies.

The position of the Allies, their ability to sustain their war effort and avoid Britain being starved into submission, was all dependent upon the people with knowledge of the Ultra program keeping the ability of the Allies to read the German codes a secret. The Allies were able to do that. It was a shock to the Germans when they found out 30 years later that the Allies had broken the Enigma codes. At times they had suspected, but they passed it off as unlikely, and did relatively little compared to what they could have done had they known.

Mao Zedong, leader of the Chinese Communist Party in its guerilla war struggle to take control of China, said, "The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea." Adjusted for current conditions* we could say that, "The terrorist moves amongst the people as a submarine moves in the sea."

The Western world is at war with al Qaida and its allies. The terrorists swim among the populations like submarines at sea. What Snowden has done is equivalent to telling the Germans in 1941 that their submarine codes have been compromised. What will the consequences be? It will take years to see, but it seems quite likely that there will be much more of this:

Two bombs in

Re:and that ever so tired false flag waves on

[vux984]

The Western world is at war with al Qaida and its allies.

To compare the "war on terror" with "world war ii" is utter nonsense.

What Snowden has done is equivalent to telling the Germans in 1941 that their submarine codes have been compromised.

More the equivalent of telling the public that the store installed security cameras in the change room, and your lamenting that the war on shoplifting has been set back.

You see, the "war on terror" isn't real. If we simply ignore them at the political level, and pursue them as the criminals they are at the law enforcement level (augmented by CIA / NSA for tracking them internationally etc), then we win.

That wouldn't have worked on the Germans in World War II... because that was a war.

You have lost any sense of perspective. And your comparison to sigint in WWII robs you of any credibility.

Re:and that ever so tired false flag waves on

[shutdown -p now]

Chances of anyone from Syria actually doing this... 0%. Chances of the NSA and/or other US/Five Eyes countries doing this: 100%.

Why, exactly? SEA did something like this before:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/09/02/syrian-electronic-army-hacks-marines-website/

Or are you saying that the message that they posted back then was also NSA-approved?

Exposes Flaws in "Enemy of my enemy is" logic

[retroworks]

Because, no matter what, no matter how much I distrust the NSA, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is not my friend. Ironically, the most disturbing things about the spying systems NSA develops, and Snowden leaks, about monitoring things like Syrian internal communication, is the way those systems will be used by dictators in the nations the USA is trying to monitor. But although small nations like Syria and many others like to play the "underdog" card vs. the USA, wife beaters and child molesters don't make good partners. Thanks, but no thanks, SEA.

(Of course, there's a chance that the hackers posting / or just posing as Syrian dictator dogs are trying to make this same point... That the NSA, as the enemy of dictatorial tyrants, is not my friend either... Inception!!)

Re:Exposes Flaws in "Enemy of my enemy is" logic

[Calydor]

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. Nothing more, nothing less.

Re:Exposes Flaws in "Enemy of my enemy is" logic

[drinkypoo]

wife beaters and child molesters don't make good partners

Yes, that's why it's reasonable to fear those who have served in the US Military. They're much more likely to beat wives and molest children.

I'm not saying that Syria doesn't have problems, but please, let's keep the moral high ground free for those who deserve it.

Re:Exposes Flaws in "Enemy of my enemy is" logic

[stdarg]

Even if your enemy's enemy is also your enemy, it's worth treating one of them (usually the weaker one) as a friend in order to weaken both of them.

Re:Exposes Flaws in "Enemy of my enemy is" logic

[shutdown -p now]

The enemy of your enemy is, occasionally, a useful ally. It's just that people tend to confuse "ally" and "friend".

Re:Exposes Flaws in "Enemy of my enemy is" logic

[shutdown -p now]

In the Syrian civil war, there are no 'good' sides. The Baath regime is a supporter of both Iran & Hizbullah, and is happy to support any Shi'ite sponsored Jihad.

OTOH, they let Christians and other religious minorities live largely undisturbed, and seem to have a knack of some "modern" ideas like educating women. I think that, long term, this is much preferable to Taliban-style Islamic emirate with rigidly enforced Sharia law. It's much more likely to evolve into a decent liberal democratic society eventually.

Re:Exposes Flaws in "Enemy of my enemy is" logic

[ShoulderOfOrion]

I've always preferred "The enemy of my enemy is an even bigger enemy", as that's usually how it works out.

Re:Well... It's true?

[flyneye]

They Syrian Electronic Army is just cluing in to this?
Weve known about it for years. Save the hacking for something important like; protect holy Islamic sites from $cientology, who are plotting at this moment to put up Starbucks at all locations.
Next time send in the Peoples Front of Judea!
(maybe it was the Judean Peoples Front,
or the Popular Peoples Front, no wait, Samzenpus is the only member left from that)

Re:Well... It's true?

[hawkinspeter]

Just a question, do you realise that by posting on Slashdot and complaining about people posting on Slashdot that you are in fact part of the problem that you are complaining about?

This is like someone sat in a car in a traffic jam and complaining about the number of cars on the road.

On an unrelated matter, has anyone got any trusted suppliers of quality explosives?

Re:Well... It's true?

[hawkinspeter]

No idea, mate, I wasn't alive for any of that history, so I don't consider myself responsible for what other people did (good or bad).

Still, I'm glad that you look up to your grandpa as I'm sure that all his bravery and good deeds have been passed down the hereditary line to yourself and that you'll soon be able to boast about how you dismantled all the corrupt machinations of the US government.

By the way, that bomb recipe you sent me doesn't seem to work. What was the concentration of phosphorous required?

Re:Well... It's true?

[hawkinspeter]

I think you'll find that most countries around the world have major portions of the population and government that are hostile to the US. Especially US tourists - why are they so loud and annoying?

I've heard some of my "sources" through my hi-fi and as I use the highest quality oxygen-free gold cables, I think I can safely say that my "sources" are "golden".

The vast majority of US citizens killed by over-eating aren't simply innocents even if they can't help themselves when eating fried food (hmmm so tasty I just can't stop). Some USians have been caught lying about the nutritional content of "wedding cakes" too.

I tried hiding amongst the innocent villagers, but their different skin colouration made it a bit pointless. Also, wearing a bowler hat and a suit may have been a mistake as everyone else seemed to be dressed in more "casual" clothes.

Also, can you give me a list of people who may have access to nuclear installations?

Oh, and a supply of cheap pressure cookers would be useful.

WTF is going on? signal/noise = 0

[fritsd]

After reading the previous 48 posts in growing confusion, every single one of them troll posts with 0 signal/noise ratio, all I can say is:

WTF is going on? Skype doesn't work properly anymore. I skype with my parents, and the connection breaks after less than 10 seconds. Did Microsoft change the skype protocol, just before the holiday days, just for a laugh to see what happens?

Oh sure, it's the fault of some terrorists. I admit that I haven't read TFA, but can someone please reply to my comment then we'll start a thread here discussing Microsoft and Skype and VOIP protocols, instead of insane GNAA garbage.

Re:WTF is going on? signal/noise = 0

[drinkypoo]

but can someone please reply to my comment then we'll start a thread here discussing Microsoft and Skype and VOIP protocols, instead of insane GNAA garbage.

Set your parents up with a soft SIP phone with video, and set up your own asterisk server which it calls. You'll get away from Microsoft and Skype both in one swell foop. Setting up asterisk for basic functionality like that is trivial.

Mental illness: a growing concern.

[ActionDesignStudios]

I don't think I have ever witnessed so many examples of mental illness being presented by commenters in this article in one place. This is a truly extraordinary thread when it comes to showing how many truly mentally ill people post to Slashdot.

13yo Syrian nerd tires of wanking 24/7

[eatvegetables]

News flash! 13 yo Syrian nerd tired of wanking all day, every day. Decides to deface web pages part of the time. Says that he will also spend time trying to build up courage enough to talk to totally hot girl who lives next door... After he wanks a little more.

Selling the data to governments?

[N3tRunner]

Why would the governments pay for the data when they are already getting it for free?

Now we really know

[TheloniousToady]

So THAT's how the US found bin Laden! - by sniffing his Hotmail account!

It's amazing: some terrorists are smart enough to hijack airliners and bring down buildings but they're too darn stupid to use a secure email service! (Or maybe they're just too darn cheap...) Anyway, it's a good thing that these smarter terrorists are around to straighten 'em out. How else are they ever gonna learn?...

But how exactly?

[nashv]

Should we take this to mean that Facebook, and Twitter have vulnerabilities that allow a third-party to usurp control of an account?

I thought modern authentication procedures were solid enough that you couldn't just get access to the account typing a few commands. There had to be more.