Al-Jazeera SMS Service Hacked By Pro-Syrian Group

Al-Jazeera has had its SMS service hacked by pro-Syrian government group, marking the fourth time this year that the news network has had a platform compromised.

Messages were sent out to subscribers, with false news stories. One claimed the wife of Qatar’s emir, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned (pictured), had been wounded.

“The message claiming that [Qatar]’s prime minister has been the target of an assassination attempt… is false and was a result of a hack,” a statement on the Arabic al-Jazeera website read, according to the BBC.

“We’d like to inform our subscribers that al-Jazeera SMS service has been compromised by hackers who have sent fake news,” a tweet from the news agency read.

Syrian Electronic Army

A group known as the Syrian Electronic Army claimed responsibility for the hit. On its website, the group says it is “supporting the cause of the Syrian Arab people by armaments with science and knowledge against the campaigns led by the Arab media and Western on our Republic by broadcasting fabricated news about what is happening in Syria”.

Al-Jazeera had its website defaced last week, in another pro-Syria attack, although a different group took credit for the hit. Earlier this year, al-Jazeera’s English language website was attacked. The agency’s Twitter account was hacked in July.

Pro-Syrian hackers have been out in force this year. They have hit the Reuters news agency repeatedly, taking over its Twitter account and hacking its blogs in August.

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