Syrian Electronic Army Hacks AFP Twitter Account, Tweets the Truth About Syria

Source :  LeakSource

Pro-Assad cyber activists have hacked one of Agence France-Presse news agency’s Twitter accounts, filling it with messages aimed at counterbalancing what they call “fabricated news” by Western media sources.

The @AFPphoto profile was compromised at around 16:45 GMT and was tweeting unsanctioned material for about an hour until the account’s temporary suspension on Tuesday.

The Syrian Electronic Army, known for their attacks on Sky News Arabia and Al-Jazeera Mobile, has claimed the responsibility for the cyber-attack.

On its website, the group claimed that it was defending the Syrian Arab people against Western media coverage of the unfolding events on the ground and accused the news outlets of “broadcasting fabricated news about what is happening in Syria.”

Deputy global news editor for AFP Pierre Celerier, confirmed that the photos posted were not AFP images.

AFP also confirmed it had fallen victim to a so called “phishing” attack which attempted to thieve the identity of employees by getting them to login to a fake AFP website.