Washington Post website hacked

On Thursday, The Washington Post said that its website was hacked. A group that supports Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime claimed responsibility.

According to Washington Post Managing Editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, for about 30 minutes, readers of some stories were redirected to a website of the Syrian Electronic Army.

The SEA has taken responsibility for numerous web attacks on media outlets that it sees as sympathetic to Syria’s rebels. The group claims to have hacked Twitter feeds of The Associated Press, Al-Jazeera English and the BBC.

The SEA claimed that it gained access to parts of the newspaper’s website by hacking one of its business partners, Outbrain, which is an Internet company that alerts readers of blogs and other media sites to recommend links targeted toward their specific interests.

The Post says it has “taken defensive measures,” including the removal of the unit affected by the hacking.