Syrian Electronic Army strikes Reuters again – this time through third-party advertiser

Articles on the news agency’s site rerouted readers to a message by the pro-Assad group, after the hackers apparently compromised an ad service used by many major news outlets.

The SEA message stated: "Stop publishing fake reports and false articles about Syria!

"UK government is supporting the terrorists in Syria to destroy it. Stop spreading its propaganda."

It seems Reuters is not to blame for the security breach, but rather web advertising site Taboola.

“The SEA reportedly corrupted Taboola web ads on Reuters articles to redirect traffic to a page under the hackers' control,” Reuters reports. “One commentator believes any client of Taboola - including the world's biggest news sites such as Yahoo!, the BBC and Fox News - could be at risk ‘anytime now.’”

The SEA message was up on the news site until around lunchtime but has since been taken down.

The hacktivist group has defaced Reuters’ online presence several times during the past few years, with hacks into its blog and Twitter account, among other webpages.