Washington Post mobile site hacked
The mobile site of The Washington Post was hacked Thursday by attackers claiming to be part of the Syrian Electronic Army, which supports the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Visitors to some pages of the mobile site saw messages that said, for example, "You've been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army!" or "The media is always lying," and were directed to an SEA website.
As you keep clicking the hacked messages on @washingtonpost change pic.twitter.com/rk3t1zsPMg
— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) May 14, 2015
Shailesh Prakash, chief information officer at The Washington Post, confirmed in a statement that "The Washington Post's mobile homepage and some section fronts on the mobile site were redirected to a site that claimed to be run by the Syrian Electronic Army."
A Twitter account that appeared to be run by the SEA declared that the hack was intended to "deliver a message."
#SEA hacks @Washingtonpost mobile site in order to deliver a message. #SEA pic.twitter.com/CDX5CKSXRk
— SyrianElectronicArmy (@Official_SEA16) May 14, 2015
According to an article on the Post's website titled "The Syrian Electronic Army just hacked the Washington Post (again)," the takeover lasted for around half an hour, and "occurred when hackers infiltrated a Washington Post content-delivery partner. That provider, Instart Logic, is currently investigating the break-in."
The attack is very similar to one that took place in 2013, also on a Thursday and also for a period of about 30 minutes. That attack, on the paper's desktop site, also directed readers to an SEA website and was perpetrated via a third-party partner.
Prakash said, "The situation has been resolved and no customer information was impacted."