Twitter hacking is all the rage: hackers routinely post hilarious tweets to celebrity and corporate accounts, and they're promptly taken down once word gets out. But over in Syria, where corruption and war crimes are a common occurrence, a group of hackers who bill themselves as the 'Syrian Electronic Army', hacked news giant Thomson Reuters' Twitter account last night to post political cartoons in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The first cartoon appeared on @ThomsonReuters around 6:33 p.m. ET yesterday, showing caricatures of Uncle Sam standing over a tied up Syrian citizen. Five more cartoons showed up after, depicting Syrian rebels in stark contrast to forces in support of the government. Click here to see all of the tweets.
Reuters' confirmed the attack after their account was suspended: "Earlier today @thomsonreuters was hacked. In this time, unauthorized individuals have posted fabricated tweets of which Thomson Reuters is not the source," a Reuters spokesperson said. "The account has been suspended and is currently under investigation."
The Syrian Electronic Army has previously attacked Al-Jazeera, the AP, BBC, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, and NPR. President al-Assad and his administration has most recently been accused by the US of using chemical weapons against his own people, and has just opened a brand new Instagram account.
