Hackers use new tactic to attack US media sites

Hackers promoting the Syrian Electronic Army simultaneously targeted websites belonging to CNN, Time and the Washington Post on Thursday by breaching Outbrain, a firm which publishes content recommendations on those sites.

That resulted in some WashingtonPost.com and Time.com customers being redirected to the website of the Syrian Electronic Army when they clicked on the content from Outbrain, said Outbrain Vice President Lisa LaCour. The CNN International site briefly displayed a headline that said “Hacked by SEA,” she said.

The Syrian Electronic Army is an online group that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has been linked to several high profile attacks. They include one on the Associated Press’ Twitter feed in which a bogus message was sent out about explosions at the White House.

The latest attacks were significant because the hackers simultaneously targeted several sites by breaching a single supplier whose content is published on multiple platforms.

In previous campaigns linked to the Syrian Electronic Army, hackers have breached networks using similar tactics. But in those cases emails were sent to employees of a single specific media outlet they were targeting, which made preparations for the attacks more labour intensive.