‘Syrian Electronic Army’ hacks U.S. media

The United States and its allies have overwhelming military force compared to the government of Syria.  But that doesn’t mean an attack on Syria or an invasion could be carried out without consequences.

For example.

For a good chunk of Tuesday, website administrators at Twitter, The New York Times, and other high-profile media outlets appeared to be locked in a high-stakes battle with self-proclaimed Syrian hackers for control of their Internet domains.

Just as quickly as twitter.co.uk, nytimes.com, and other domains were returned to their rightful owners, Internet records showed they’d be seized all over again and made to point to a Russian Web host known to cater to purveyors of drive-by malware exploits and other online nasties

via Ars Technica.

Whether or not these hackers really were Syrians, the incident shows that small countries have ways of retaliating that don’t involve armed force or violent terrorism.

LINKS

Twitter and New York Times clash with hackers for control of their sites by Dan Goodin for Ars Technica.

Pro-Assad ‘Syrian Electronic Army’ boasts attacks on New York Times, Twitter, Huffington Post on Boing Boing.

Tags: Internet, Syria, Syria Intervention