Syrian Government Hacked, 43GB of Data Spilled Online By Hacktivists (softpedia.com)

An anonymous reader writes: On April 6, a hacking outfit going by the name of Cyber Justice Team leaked data from multiple Syrian government and private websites. The leak includes the password file from the breached server, along with MySQL host permissions, admin passwords, and a link to the 10GB compressed file, uploaded to the file sharing site MEGA. While some of the data seems to be from older data breaches, some of it is also new. This is one of the biggest leaks of Syrian government data, a regime that has remained protected against such threats due to an aggressive cyber-policy. The government has been known to secretly back the Syrian Electronic Army hacker group, who the US government recently indicted (3 members at least).

Comments

Leak spam to desensitize?

[Tyr07]

Feels like someone is trying to desensitize us from data breaches so they don't have to be responsible or upgrade their infrastructure to prevent it from happening.

Re:Leak spam to desensitize?

[dave420]

Your position reeks of paranoia. You've got to show why this has not the likeliest explanation, but some complicated scheme involving not just hackers, but hackers working with a cabal of government/reptilians/whatever trying to skew your precious mind.

To me this sounds like business as usual: 'Bad guys' have some data, 'good guys' take it and release it. Who is good and bad is subjective, however, hence the quotes.

Double Standard

[Anonymous Coward]

Whether it's Assad's regime using chemical weapons on the Syrian people or ISIL committing all sorts of atrocities, there are no good guys in the fight. Both sides are Islamic, and both are clearly in the wrong. ISIL has committed numerous attacks around the world, slaughtering innocent civilians in cowardly terror attacks. We'll probably learn more about the attacks on the Syrian people by the Assad regime in this data breach. Again, all of these evils are done by Muslims in a war that is very much about Islam. In the West, we're constantly told that Islam is a religion of peace. Those who point out the violence in Islam are branded as bigots or dismissed as fools. Islam is called a religion of peace and is given a free pass for the violence committed in its name. However, a Christian baker who refuses to bake a cake for an LGBT wedding gets widely criticized by the media and Christianity is labeled a religion of hate. The Christians aren't stopping the LGBT couple from getting married ad there are plenty of other bakers willing to bake that cake. Yet Christianity is routinely attacked by the media as a religion of hate, while Islam is considered a religion of peace and gets a free pass. Can anyone justify this double standard as anything but extremely unfair?

Re:Double Standard

[Mashiki]

Can anyone justify this double standard as anything but extremely unfair?

Of course not. Islam is the media darling and can do no wrong because "islamophobia." Fun reminder, that at the extreme end of the media claiming islamophobia(a word coined by islamist extremists) and these things are problematic when people call out the BS. Then you'll see stuff like this and the media trying to cover it up, claiming that "the story needs more work."

Re:Double Standard

[EmeraldBot]

Whether it's Assad's regime using chemical weapons on the Syrian people or ISIL committing all sorts of atrocities, there are no good guys in the fight. Both sides are Islamic, and both are clearly in the wrong. ISIL has committed numerous attacks around the world, slaughtering innocent civilians in cowardly terror attacks. We'll probably learn more about the attacks on the Syrian people by the Assad regime in this data breach. Again, all of these evils are done by Muslims in a war that is very much about Islam. In the West, we're constantly told that Islam is a religion of peace. Those who point out the violence in Islam are branded as bigots or dismissed as fools. Islam is called a religion of peace and is given a free pass for the violence committed in its name. However, a Christian baker who refuses to bake a cake for an LGBT wedding gets widely criticized by the media and Christianity is labeled a religion of hate. The Christians aren't stopping the LGBT couple from getting married ad there are plenty of other bakers willing to bake that cake. Yet Christianity is routinely attacked by the media as a religion of hate, while Islam is considered a religion of peace and gets a free pass. Can anyone justify this double standard as anything but extremely unfair?

Wars were caused in the middle east because the current leaders are all idiots, not because of a religion. The religion's just a propoganda cover story, for the purpose of convincing more idiots to bloe themselves up - or, for people like you to once again bring back the xenophobia. Blacks were once responsible for all our problems: then it was Jews, then Japanese, then Russians, then Chinese, and now the Middle East gets their turn. Do you really think we haven't done this whole spiel before?

Re:Double Standard

[Megol]

Whether it's Assad's regime using chemical weapons on the Syrian people or ISIL committing all sorts of atrocities, there are no good guys in the fight.

IOW: it is an ordinary war.

Both sides are Islamic, and both are clearly in the wrong.

Only if you define "in the wrong" as being Muslim. Yes "both" (the actual war is among a huge amount of groups affiliated with some other groups) are in the wrong but the use of religion as a bait is universal, even non-religious groups like the German National Socialist movement used Christianity (and also Islam(!!)) in order to get stronger support from various groups of people. The Syrian government is a version of the Baath party which (as the one previously in Iraq) is essentially secular.

ISIL has committed numerous attacks around the world, slaughtering innocent civilians in cowardly terror attacks. We'll probably learn more about the attacks on the Syrian people by the Assad regime in this data breach. Again, all of these evils are done by Muslims in a war that is very much about Islam.

And here I though it was a fight over who should control Syria! Good that someone enlightened such as yourself could correct that misconception!

In the West, we're constantly told that Islam is a religion of peace. Those who point out the violence in Islam are branded as bigots or dismissed as fools. Islam is called a religion of peace and is given a free pass for the violence committed in its name. However, a Christian baker who refuses to bake a cake for an LGBT wedding gets widely criticized by the media and Christianity is labeled a religion of hate.

Almost good enough to take a bite but no, it is too transparent. Why? Because the skewed representation of what actually is said "In the West" (whatever that is).

The Christians aren't stopping the LGBT couple from getting married ad there are plenty of other bakers willing to bake that cake. Yet Christianity is routinely attacked by the media as a religion of hate, while Islam is considered a religion of peace and gets a free pass. Can anyone justify this double standard as anything but extremely unfair?

Hint: while relatively good (I almost want to correct you) making the strawman argument so transparent leads to people understanding that you are a troll.

Re:Double Standard

[Mashiki]

Wars were caused in the middle east because the current leaders are all idiots, not because of a religion. ...

Islam is not only a religious system and legal system, but a political system too. And many of the leaders in that region use it as justification for their actions, that includes the current, past, and terrorist groups. That's not propaganda, that's a combination of cultural and religious. That is your fundamental difference between your "it was 'jews, japanese, russians, chinese" bit. Judaism was a religious and political system, until it had it's reformation. Now there are only the die hard hold outs. Christianity never really was, neither paganism or orthodox christian were religious and political system. And neither is shintoism.

You're welcome to believe whatever you want though, but there's no xenophobia involved. And what islam needs to do is get caught up to the 21st century, and that means taking those religious scholars that say "making snowmen is idolatry," "women are inferior," "a man's testimony is twice that of a women's." That whole "it's just a propaganda problem" didn't fly during the middle ages, and it didn't fly in the 1980's either here in the west.

Re:Double Standard

[BCGlorfindel]

Wars were caused in the middle east because the current leaders are all idiots, not because of a religion. The religion's just a propoganda cover story, for the purpose of convincing more idiots to bloe themselves up - or, for people like you to once again bring back the xenophobia. Blacks were once responsible for all our problems: then it was Jews, then Japanese, then Russians, then Chinese, and now the Middle East gets their turn. Do you really think we haven't done this whole spiel before?

Well, to be fair, when it was the Japanese being blamed, they had just hit Pearl Harbor. You also skipped the time everyone was blaming the Nazi's...

Saying that religion has nothing to do with the Middle East's violence is about as stupid as declaring that religion is it's only problem.

Iran and Pakistan are religious states based upon their founding documents. The absolute worst(by nature and population) religious hate mongering is founded in Wahabi Islam, out of Saudi Arabia. All 3 of these states and their neighbours are all intermingled and divided along religious(and other) lines.

Or perhaps more succinctly to the case of Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, has a religious element. Arguing as if it's a non factor is criminally incompetent. Going back to the GP, if you ARE willing to declare that Islam is innocent in these events, maybe Christianity deserves a pass too the next time somebody says something homophobic.

Re:Double Standard

[ILiveToEat]

Agreed that both Assad and ISIL/ISIS are horrible. However its not true that both sides are Islamic and this civil war is the farthest thing from a religious conflict.
I am of Syrian origin and been living in the US for the past 10 years. I am born Christian, lived in Islamic societies for a couple of decades and feel qualified to correct this mis-information. I'm now agnostic so I can also shed my perspective a bit later about the disparity.

Assad's regime is actually the Ba'ath party which is more socialist than anything. See wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... Assad himself is from a sect of Islam that is called Alawite (wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...). They are less than 10% of Syrian population. Also please note that about 10% of Syrians are Christian (wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...).

When the conflict started it was about social inequality and lack of freedom, it started with peaceful demonstrations that spiraled into what is now a civil war that has been going on for years. Sure now extreme groups such as ISIL are fighting based on religion but these people are not even statistically representative, they are about 30,000 fighters compared to Syria's population of around 23,000,000.

Regarding Christianity cast as a religion of hate, I dont believe it is a religion of hate, i grew up going to Church twice a week and the teachings were all about love and peace. However its people's tendency to generalize and use whatever means to prove their point. For example the comment you made above generalizes how the situation is in Syria and called it an Islamic fight yet you clearly dont have enough evidence to support that claim, this was your point of view based on the information you had at the time and hence you stated your opinion as fact. The same prejudice happened against Christianity, the acts of Christians tarnished their religion. For example "The Christians aren't stopping the LGBT couple from getting married", for the longest time they could and they did stop LGBT from getting married, if the Church had its way the law would still prohibit it. This is the problem with most religions, Christianity, Islam..etc People start thinking that their religion is the right one and that everyone else should abide by their beliefs.

We are all educated people on /. We should do our research instead of believing everything we hear/see on tv. Syria is going through a humanitarian crisis and instead of helping the innocent people we're painting it as a religious conflict between extremists who should just slaughter each other.

This is being sifted through carefully

[ITRambo]

I hope that no one believes that the western world governments aren't glad this breach, and subsequent leak, occurred. They're no doubt combing through the data to find anything new that supports the position of deposing the murderous, and yet somewhat charismatic, scoundrel Assad.