A number of media websites have been defaced to display a message from hacktivists the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA).
According to media reports, The Independent, Telegraph, LA Times, CNBC & NBC, Boston Globe, Forbes and Business Insider were among those who came under attack, which the BBC reported was enabled by changing the DNS settings of the shared website provider.
The message related to Thanksgiving, and was accompanied by a message critical of Isis, which is fighting against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
Gigya confirmed to the BBC that the hackers had mounted the attack by changing its domain name system entry and by changing some of Gigya’s domains, which were registered with GoDaddy, the hackers were able to redirect visitors to their own webpages, or alternatively activate pop-up messages.
Jen Weedon, principal threat intel analyst at Mandiant, said: “This is in keeping with the group’s previous activity. The group’s primary MO is to make a statement about their political affiliation (pro-Syrian regime), or brag that they’ve gained access to or ‘hacked’ victims. The SEA regularly targets Western news organisations.”
A Telegraph statement delivered via Twitter said: “A part of our website run by a third-party was compromised earlier today. We’ve removed the component. No Telegraph user data was affected.”
