WASHINGTON
Pro-Syrian government hackers allegedly brought down the U.S. Army’s website on Monday.
The Twitter account of a group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army took credit for the cyberattack with a screenshot showing the Army’s website with a pop-up box reading “Hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army”.
Army.mil, the Army’s official website, is currently unavailable. An archived version on the hacker's Twitter account shows an image of Syrian Arab Army fighters emblazoned with the words “The Defenders of Honor.”
The Army acknowledged a breach in a statement Monday, saying that “an element” of its service provider was compromised.
“After this came to our attention, the Army took appropriate preventive measures to ensure there was no breach of Army data by taking down the website temporarily,” said Army Brig. Gen. Malcolm B. Frost.
The Syrian Electronic Army made headlines when it seized control of the Associated Press’ Twitter account in 2013 and posted messages saying that the White House had been attacked. They have also claimed several cyberattacks on Western media organization's websites, including The New York Times and The Guardian.
The group, which denies that it is funded by Damascus, says on its website that it was formed in 2011 following Arab and Western media bias "in favor of terrorist groups".
