Syrian Electronic Army says it hacked Skype's social media accounts

The pro-Syrian government hacking group, the Syrian Electronic Army, has taken credit for an attack on the social media accounts of Internet calling service Skype.

Messages accusing Microsoft, Skype's parent company, of passing along user data to governments were posted Wednesday on Skype’s official Twitter and Facebook accounts as well as a Skype blog.

“Don’t use Microsoft emails (hotmail,outlook), They are monitoring your accounts and selling the data to the governments.More details soon #SEA," read one tweet, since deleted.

The Syrian Electronic Army also posted on its Twitter account what it said were the contact details for outgoing Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, saying, "You can thank Microsoft for monitoring your accounts/emails using this details. #SEA."

Commenting on the attack, the group said on its Facebook page, "In continuation of our electronic war that we started in defense of the borders of our homeland ... the command of the SEA declares its success in hacking Microsoft ... and finding many documents that prove Microsoft's selling of information and passwords for Hotmail and Outlook and other accounts to government in exchange for large sums of money.” [Link in Arabic]

Skype, which regained control of the accounts the same day, acknowledged the hack in a tweet saying, “You may have noticed our social media properties were targeted today. No user info was compromised. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”

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[link to www.latimes.com]