Washington Post Says Website Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army

The Washington Post's website was hacked, sending some users who tried to access its stories to a Syrian hacker site, the Post said Thursday. The readers were redirected to the page of the Syrian Electronic Army, a group that backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to the Post. The publisher said it was working to fix its site and didn't indicate which article pages pointed to the SEA. The Post is at least the fourth news organization that has been targeted by the Syrian Electronic Army this year. In April, the group claimed credit for infiltrating the Associated Press Twitter account and posted an erroneous message saying the White House had been bombed, sending markets down 1% in a matter of seconds. The group has also hacked the Financial Times and ITV, the U.K.'s biggest commercial TV station. The Graham family, which controls Washington Post Co., agreed this month to sell the newspaper to billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, for $250 million. The family had sought an owner with large resources who could fund the money-losing newspaper going forward. Mr. Bezos, who acquired the paper as an individual, said in a statement at the time that he understands "the critical role the Post plays in Washington, D.C., and our nation." The newspaper is the largest published in the U.S. capital and closely read in political circles. The New York Times' website went down for several hours on Wednesday, prompting speculation that the Syrian Electronic Army was at work, but the paper later said that the problem seemed linked to a routine maintenance update. ~ Bloomberg News ~

Washington Post Says Website Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army

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