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back to article Syrian Electronic Army: We hijacked FACEBOOK ... honest, guv

Hacktivists with the Syrian Electronic Army (briefly) meddled with Facebook’s domain on Wednesday night, according to recent reports. The pro-Assad hacking crew claimed to have gained access to an administrative panel at DNS provider MarkMonitor and altered the registrant contact details to point towards Damascus and a Gmail …

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  1. AndyS

    I'm struggling to see the point of this

    Dropping barrel bombs on Aleppo neighbourhoods may be dispicable, but at least there is a military purpose (you know, once you've killed everyone, there won't be any rebels left. Much like the WW2 bomber command tactics). Attending peace conferences while continuing to drop barrel bombs? Again, I can see the point - it might just convince some people that you aren't heartless murdering bastards, or at least wish you didn't have to be.

    But hacking facebook? What could that actually achieve? How would it benefit the butcher and his henchemen holed up in Damascus even one iota?

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  2. Callam McMillan

    So they didn't actually hack Facebook

    In fact they tried (and failed) to hack the registrars DNS records for Facebook. That's a lot different to actually hacking Facebook. It's annoying when the normal news gets it wrong, but the Reg should be getting it right!

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    1. Hans 1
      Reply Icon

      Re: So they didn't actually hack Facebook

      Which part of the word "hijacked" did you not understand ? I checked the article to make sure, nowhere does it say SEA hacked Facebook. Just that the hijacking was the first step in a hacking attempt ...

      Now, those who cry about the usefulness to hack facebook ... I still have popcorn left and am enjoying every SEA article on el'reg - not that I support any of the factions fighting in Syria - it is just fun to read how window cleaners get what they deserve.

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    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: So they didn't actually hack Facebook

      It's annoying when the normal news gets it wrong, but the Reg should be getting it right!

      The Reg did get it right. They cover what happened in the article, including who exactly did get hacked (as far as we know the details), and with what effect. i.e. none. And why FB didn't get hijacked.

      Even the headline is pretty clear. Obviously headlines are advertising, they're trying to get you to read a story, so they can be a bit sensationalist - so long as they aren't actually lying. This headline has what the SEA claim, followed by "... honest, guv". Which is a pretty clear indication that the SEA are telling porkies. Which the article then covers. What's to complain about?

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  3. Spiracle

    2 factor saves the day?

    According to Graham Cluley FB used a registry lock with 2 factor authentication. I'm assuming that the second factor may have been as simple as phoning them up and asking them whether they were really relocating the business to Damascus.

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  4. Hans 1

    I think the shit hit the fan when they set the email address to some gmail address ... now that was silly!

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The correct thing to say..

    The correct thing to say is that they hacked MarkMonitor.

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "surfers trying to visit Facebook.com and pointing them towards a propaganda site instead."

    Based on the seething rabble who pounded on the guy whose blog briefly became the first Google result for 'Facebook', diverting would-be visitors to a site promoting Assad would probably result in a mob of socially-starved sharers descending on the Middle East and shredding the Syrian government army in a matter of hours. The SEA is playing with fire...

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  7. Paul Eagles
    Holmes

    So that explains why I had my Client Services Manager at MarkMonitor call me to reset my password for their portal.

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