Financial Times Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army, Paper Says

Financial Times hacked: The Financial Times’ was hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army, the publication said on Friday.
Financial Times Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army, Paper Says
Jack Phillips
5/17/2013
Updated:
5/17/2013

Financial Times hacked: The Financial Times’ was hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army, the publication said on Friday.

A dozen posts that read “Hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army” showed up on the Times’ tech blog in an approximately five-minute span on Friday, the paper said. Its Twitter accounts were also disrupted in the incident.

Its Twitter accounts said that “the Syrian Electronic Army was here,” reported The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

“We have now locked those accounts and are grateful for Twitter’s help on this,” managing editor Robert Shrimsley said. “Unfortunately this is an increasingly common issue for major news organisations,” he added.

The Syrian Electronic Army, a pro-government group, is responsible for a series of hacks on a number of major media entities, including The Associated Press.

Several weeks ago, the group even hacked the Twitter accounts of satirical news website The Onion.

A few of the FT’s dozens of Twitter feeds were compromised Friday and broadcast messages supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad. One described the Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra as terrorists and linked to a graphic video of a hooded man shooting kneeling prisoners in the back of the head.

An internal company memo distributed Thursday and seen by the Associated Press warned FT employees not to click on suspicious emails.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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