Skype, the Internet calling service acknowledged on yesterday it had been hit with a “cyber attack” but said no user information was compromised. The Syrian Electronic Army hacked into Skype’s social media accounts, and posted Anti-Microsoft posts.
You may have noticed our social media properties were targeted today. No user info was compromised. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.
— Skype (@Skype) January 2, 2014
A Tweet posted on Skype’s official Twitter feed on Wednesday read: “Don’t use Microsoft emails (hotmail, outlook), They are monitoring your accounts and selling the data to the governments.
More details soon. #SEA” Similar messages were posted on Skype’s official Facebook pages and on a blog on its website before being taken down later in the afternoon.
The Syrian Electronic Army, an amorphous hacking collective that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, later claimed the attack.
The SEA also posted on its Twitter feed the contact information of Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s retiring chief executive, along with the message:
“You can thank Microsoft for monitoring your accounts/emails using this details. #SEA”
That message was a reference to revelations last year by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that Skype, which is owned by Microsoft, was part of the NSA’s programme to monitor communications through some of the biggest US Internet companies.
“We recently became aware of a targeted cyber attack that led to access to Skype’s social media properties, but these credentials were quickly reset. No user information was compromised.” a spokeswoman for Skype said in a statement released on Thursday.
Source: dna
