
The
Associated Press did not escape the toll as it also got hit by the hacking
assaults led by the same group. The said onslaught caused their stocks to
tremendously go down and their operations to suffer major setbacks.
Other media
organizations that became previous targets include the BBC, the National Public
Radio in the U.S., and the France 24 TV. The said Syrian Army claims to have
staged the mentioned hacking assaults primarily to spread support for the
regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
According to
cybersecurity experts, the high-profile hacks launched by SEA are aimed to
cause disruption and embarrassment to draw the attention of the public. They
have it that such disruptive advances may continue to bombard sites that
provide an avenue to forward their propaganda.
Western
intelligence agencies further suspect that SEA might be a proxy for an
administration which may have been widely condemned due to their savage efforts
to subdue an internal insurgence. Although their victim trail seemed random, it
appears that SEA was focusing on Western media.
In this
light, the widely used networking site Twitter distributed emails to news
organizations warning them about the mentioned hacking outbreak. Twitter also
called for these media establishments to look into their internal security
measures in dealing with social media.
The popular
social network encouraged media entities to utilize only one computer for their
Twitter usage. Such mechanism will help safeguard their log-in credentials and
keep them from spreading around.
Moreover,
Twitter also advised these media establishments not to use their Twitter accounts
to access the Internet or open email communications. This is to reduce the
possibility of malware infection and other cyber attacks.
The
networking site also encouraged the media to work hand in hand with the Twitter
team to keep account details updated and protected. Twitter management said
that they are continuously working to update their information on their partner
accounts.
Even before
this recent hacking outbreak, there has been an increasing pressure on the said
social network already to further bolster their internal security. Experts from
around the world are also calling for a two-factor authentication that would
require two steps in verifying Twitter accounts.
Latest
reports from the technology magazine ‘Wired’ suggested that Twitter has already
been initiating trial launches of the mentioned two-factor authentication
technology. But confirmation from the networking site itself is still at bay.
While
industry experts have been pointing out that the two-factor authentication
method for Twitter could prove costly, ideas from external sources on raising
funds for the said enhanced security version have been coming out.