Hacking, propaganda the main weapons for Syrian Electronic Army
The Syrian Electronic Army has launched a counter-offensive against the online activities of opposition protesters, and its main weapon is hacking
The self-styled Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) has launched hacking attacks in recent weeks on the BBC, the Associated Press and most recently The Guardian.
Last week the pro-government group succeeded in hijacking AP's main Twitter account, with 1.9 million followers. It falsely claimed that US President Barack Obama had been injured in an explosion. AP corrected the message, but not before US$130 billion had been briefly wiped off the value of stocks.
Online pro-revolution activists have been one of the defining features of the Arab spring. In Syria, opposition activists have played a crucial role in the struggle against President Bashar al-Assad. Over the past two years they have uploaded numerous videos of anti-Assad demonstrations to YouTube, posted gruesome footage of victims killed by government forces, and helped shape political perceptions in the West, as European Union leaders inch towards arming Syria's moderate opposition.
But unlike Tunisia, Egypt and Libya - whose former regimes were caught badly off guard - Assad's government is fighting back. It has created an increasingly rambunctious group of counter-revolutionary hackers. These hackers have a twin function: to punish Western news organisations seen as critical of Syria's regime, and to spread Damascus' alternative narrative. This says that the war in Syria isn't a popular uprising against a brutal, despotic family-military dynasty but rather an attempt by Islamist terrorists to turn Syria into a crazy al-Qaeda fiefdom.
The Syrian Electronic Army began in 2011. According to defectors, the group moved last year from Damascus to a secret base in Dubai. The Syrian government is widely believed to be behind the SEA's activities.
The army consists of the brothers of every Syrian citizen ... Young people have an important role to play at this stage, because they have proven themselves to be an active power
In a speech to Damascus university in 2011, Assad likened the online warriors to his frontline troops: "The army consists of the brothers of every Syrian citizen ... Young people have an important role to play at this stage, because they have proven themselves to be an active power. There is the electronic army, which has been a real army in virtual reality."