For the second time in two weeks Reuters, a popular world news site has been hacked yet again. The first time was due to an outdated WordPress version.
The fake article had reported that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal had died, according to Reuters.
“Reuters did not report the false story and the post was immediately deleted,” Reuters News’ director of global communications Barb Burg said in a statement. “We are working to address the problem.”
In addition to the Web site’s blogging platform, Reuters’ Twitter account was also hacked in the past two weeks. Hackers acquired access to the Reuters Tech account, renaming it TechMe, and fictitious tweets were posted about
the Syrian rebels being defeated in a major battle.
It’s still unknown who the individual or group is behind these news hacks. But Reuters hints that it may have been pro-government forces in Syria. In its article today it writes, “Saudi Arabia has emerged as a staunch opponent of Assad.”
This news comes as an investigation by the watchdog group the Electronic Frontier Foundation identified that Syrian activists, journalists, and government opposition groups are the center of directed malware aggresses. The
malware, addressed as AntiHacker, installs surveillance software into targeted people’s computers under the pretext of protecting them from viruses.
