Syrian Electronic Army Takes Credit For Skype Hack

Syrian hacktivist group says it cracked Microsoft's Skype site, stole damning data

Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading

January 6, 2014

1 Min Read
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The Syrian Electronic Army is taking credit for last week's hack of Skype, and claims to have stolen information from Skype's parent company, Microsoft.

In a post on its Facebook page, the hacktivist group states that it has hacked Skype's Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as a Skype blog.

"In continuation of our electronic war that we started in defense of the borders of our homeland ... the command of the SEA declares its success in hacking Microsoft," the SEA says on its Arabic-language Facebook page. The group also says that its hack on Microsoft also found "many documents that prove Microsoft's selling of information and passwords for Hotmail and Outlook and other accounts to government in exchange for large sums of money."

After it took back control of the accounts later the same day, Skype acknowledged the hacks in a Twitter post. "You may have noticed our social media properties were targeted today," the tweet says. "No user info was compromised. We're sorry for the inconvenience."

Microsoft was among the companies alleged to have cooperated with the NSA in a U.S. surveillance program by former contractor Edward Snowden. Some observers speculated that those allegations may have made Microsoft a target for the SEA.

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