The Syrian Electronic Army claimed on Tuesday to have “owned” Twitter’s domain by changing the website’s WHOIS information.
According to Tech Terms, WHOIS “is an Internet service that finds information about a domain name or IP address.”
“If you enter a domain name in a WHOIS search engine, it will scour a huge database of domains and return information about the one you entered,” it explains. “This information typically contains the name, address, and phone number of the administrative, billing, and technical contacts of the domain name.”
The army tweeted at 4:55 p.m. EDT the following:
“Hi @Twitter, look at your domain, its owned by #SEA :) http://whois.domaintools.com/twitter.com “
The SEA, which is a pro-government group of hackers, posted a picture of some of Twitter’s WHOIS information changed. It appears that the Admin Name and Tech Name was changed to SEA SEA.
However, some other Domain Name System (DNS) services such as Network Solutions are still showing the correct DNS information for Twitter. Its likely that the SEA had compromised some DNS servers (such as the ones providing information to domaintools.com), according to Epoch Times tech writer Ram Srinivasan.
A twitter spokesperson said the company’s looking into what happened. Meanwhile, the website appears to be working fine, as well as related services such as Tweetdeck.
The apparent hack comes shortly after the New York Times website was hacked, also apparently by the SEA.
Previous Syrian Electronic Army hacks or claimed hacks:
Chartbeat Says Syrian Electronic Army Carried out Phishing Attack
Syrian Electronic Army Hacks Reuters Twitter Account (+Photos)
Washington Post Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army
Financial Times Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army, Paper Says
E! News Hacked: Syrian Electronic Army Claims Responsibility
Friends Read Free