A Closer Look At the Syrian Electronic Army 47
tsu doh nimh writes "Yesterday saw the publication of two stories focusing on two different Syrian men thought to be core members of the Syrian Electronic Army, the hacking group that took credit for recent break-ins that compromised the Web sites of The New York Times, The Washington Post and other media outlets. Working with a source who says he hacked into the SEA's servers this year, Vice.com profiles a fairly high-profile SEA member who uses the nickname "ThePro" and outs him as a young man named Hatem Deeb. Separately, Brian Krebs managed to get hold of the SQL database for the SEA's Web site after it was allegedly hacked this year, and follows a trail of clues back to one of two administrators of the SEA, which leads to another Syrian guy — a Web developer named Mohammed Osman, a.k.a. Mohamed Abd AlKarem."
Re:Ah the good new days! (Score:5, Interesting)
Unlike the good old days when governments had better technology than everyone else and other governments. It's amazing how a bunch of state sponsored hackers can, to a degree, level the playing field a little more. Now if they could only start hacking targets worth hacking instead of media outlets.
I think what they've discovered is that hacking the media outlets is the most effective way to affect change. Way more effective than terrorist bombings in getting things to actually change, as you're guaranteed to get lots of eyeballs and actually get your message across.
What I'm waiting for is a change in DEPTH of hacking media outlets. If they hack the feeds going to and from the outlets, they control the information/propaganda being fed to the consumers of the information. They can use this to increase coverage of underreported stories, change the slant of the data being consumed, or even block information not beneficial to their cause. Just like world governments already do!
Re:Ah the good new days! (Score:2, Interesting)
What has SEA accomplished? Seriously, other than being annoying douche bags?
Al Qaeda, on the other hand, managed to make America spend more than a trillion dollars and to some extent as a result, sink itself into economic trouble. They've also managed to trick us into ruining our reputations on the world stage, curtail our own freedoms, invite us to spy on ourselves and essentially forego constitutional protections. Plus these protracted conflicts abroad have nearly broken the back of our mighty military.
I'd say terrorist bombings have worked a lot better than hacking the NYT.