A group styled as the Syrian Electronic Army claimed credit
A number of CNN's social media accounts and blogs were hacked Thursday by a group styling itself as the Syrian Electronic Army.
The cable news network said its main Facebook account, Twitter feeds and some blogs were targeted and content posted on some of them. The posts, including unauthorized tweets, were deleted in minutes and the accounts have since been secured, it said.
The SEA, a group that supports the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, said in a Twitter message that it had decided to retaliate against CNN's "viciously lying reporting aimed at prolonging the suffering" in Syria.
SEA has targeted previously many high-profile websites and Twitter accounts.
This month it attacked the social media properties of Skype, Microsoft's Internet phone unit, and several other Microsoft social media pages and blogs, including the Microsoft Office Blogs site. The SEA charged the company with selling customer data to governments, presumably a reference to disclosures last year by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden, that Internet companies were allegedly providing access to real-time customer data to the agency.
In August, an attack purportedly by SEA on Melbourne IT, an Australian domain registrar, affected the websites of The New York Times, Twitter and other top companies.
Why you can't ignore social media governance
BBC Worldwide gives structure to its social media objectives
Companies are still not being strategic enough around social media
The attack on CNN is in line with earlier attacks by the SEA, which were primarily focused on issues related to the civil war in Syria.
John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is john_ribeiro@idg.com
In the third and final episode of our 3-part CMO50 video series exploring modern marketing and why it’s become a matter of trust, we’re delighted to be joined by Telstra’s former CMO and now digital services and sales executive, Jeremy Nicholas, and Adobe VP Marketing Asia-Pacific and Japan, Duncan Egan.
Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.
Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?
As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.
