Yesterday, the New York Times’ website was attacked. ?A group named Syrian Electronic Army, sympathizers of Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad, claimed responsibility.
The New York Times site went down around 3pm yesterday, and went down again around 6pm Eastern time. This isn’t the first time the Syrian Electronic Army struck. On Aug 15, they struck The Washington Post. Even today, the NYT started less than 100%. Some subscribers can access the site; other cannot. As of 8am, the Times tweeted people can go to news.nytco.com to get their news. I haven’t used this site, so I can’t verify that. But by 10am, the Syrian Electronic Army tweeted they were going to deliver an anti-war statement,?but?that their website was down.?They claimed it was worth it in the name of world peace.
Obviously, this comes at a time when Syria is under great turmoil, and much of the world is wondering what to do about it. If those who support Assad are cyber attacking, I fear?it will only be a matter of time before the other side strikes back. And I’m not just talking about individuals or?groups, but entire nations. China and Russia, two very powerful countries, have warned the US and others if they attack Syria. ?And I’ve reported before of how good China is at hacking into major, major companies and governments. My concern is that if this ramps up any further, we may see more cyber attacks. It’s amazing of how many lives can be disrupted with the push of?a button. What can we do to keep and remain safe?