There's just a few days left to snag some Marketplace swag at a discount when you... Donate Today! 🎁

Syrian Electronic Army hacked U.S. media companies using Outbrain

Molly Wood Aug 16, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Syrian Electronic Army hacked U.S. media companies using Outbrain

Molly Wood Aug 16, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

The so-called Syrian Electronic Army can add a few notches to its hacking belt — one for The Washington Post, CNN, and Time magazine. Those are just the latest media organizations to be hacked by the group that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Several others have already been hacked this year. This incident was different, though. Rather than target a specific media company, hackers apparently went after a third party service that many websites use, called Outbrain. Chester Wisniewski, of cybersecurity firm Sophos,  says Outbrain tries to keep you on a website with links related to the article you’re already reading.

Wisniewski suspects hackers may have gained access to Outbrain with a so-called “phishing” attack — getting someone to click on a bad link in an email. He says the best defense against hacking is still employee training. Also, engaging third party companies like Outbrain can pose an issue for company security.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.