This Time, Syrian Electronic Army Messes with International Business Times

The hacktivists known for defacing media websites and hijacking their Twitter accounts took credit for removing an IBTimes website story titled “The Syrian Army Is Shrinking, And Assad Is Running Out Of Soldiers.”

The group also apparently replaced an IBTimes front page section titled “In Depth” with “Hacked by SEA.” 

The story at issue cited a report from the Institute for the Study of War stating Syrian President Bashar Assad’s armed forces had shrunk from 325,000 to an estimated 150,000 because of widespread death, defection and desertion among soldiers.

The Syrian Electronic Army substituted the story with an article titled “Hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army,” and a byline under the name of “Nikita Garia,” who is a news editor working out of the publication’s Bangalore bureau. A Twitter account with the handle @Official_SEA16 also posted a tweet claiming responsibility for the hack with a screenshot of the IBTimes website.