Just two days after Reuters website was hacked apparently by a pro-Syrian government group, the news agency’s Twitter account also got hacked. The new case of hacking seems to be done by the same group. Because, the hackers have posted pro-Syrian tweets in one of Reuters Twitters accounts, this time.
The hackers were able to gain control of a Twitter profile of Reuters, which goes by the handle @ReutersTech. Once the hackers gained control of the account, they changed the handle to @ReuterME (ME for Middle East).
The account was then used to send out similar pro-regime tweets about Syria, as before. One of the tweets read, “FSA source reveals that 2200 of their fighters were killed in Aleppo, demanding extra support from the ‘free world.’ Another tweet read, “FSA source confirms heavy losses within their ranks due to the superiority & sheer force of Syrian army.” Finally, the third fake and false tweet read, “Syrian army source anonymously states that Aleppo battle is like ‘shooting fish in a barrel’, says victory is near.’
Clearly, the purpose of such tweets was to try to discourage FSA fighters and at the same time, feed fake information to the international community regarding the civil war in Syria. Since the breach, the account has been suspended by Reuters and investigations are under way.
Courtesy: CNET
