Syrian hackers say they knocked army.mil offline
The Pentagon acknowledged the hack, but did not confirm the attacker.
The Army’s website was down for several hours June 8, and hackers linked to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad claimed responsibility.
“Today an element of the Army.mil service provider’s content was compromised,” spokesman Brig. Gen. Malcolm Frost said in a statement. “After this came to our attention, the Army took appropriate preventive measures to ensure there was no breach of Army data by taking down the website temporarily.”
Frost’s statement did not name a perpetrator, but the Syrian Electronic Army, took credit on Twitter. The SEA is a group of pro-Assad hackers and propagandists that surfaced in 2011. The group rails against perceived Western media bias toward the Syrian conflict, and has claimed credit for hacking news organizations such as the Associated Press and Washington Post.
This is at least the second high-profile hack of the U.S. military’s online presence this year. Pro-Islamic State hackers in January breached the Twitter and YouTube accounts of Central Command, displaying messages threatening violence against U.S. soldiers and posting military documents.