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The Syrian Electronic Army Hacked Obama's URL Shortener

Geoffrey IngersollOct 28, 2013, 23:42 IST

A Twitter account claiming to be an official representative of the Syrian Electronic Army - a loose group of hackers who support Bashar Al Assad - alleges they have hacked into the Twitter and Facebook accounts of Barack Obama, Fran Berkman of Mashable reports.

They also claim to have hacked the emails of White House staffers.

The Twitter and Facebook hacks exploited the link shortener, which posted links that led back to a Syrian Electronic Army Website.

"All the the links that Barack Obama account tweeted it and post it on Facebook was redirected to a video showing the truth about Syria," an SEA spokesperson wrote in an email to Berkman.

Berkman verified their claims:

The altered links in Obama's profile lead to a 24-minute video titled "Syria facing terrorism." Be warned, however: The video contains graphic violence.

via TwitterObama Tweeting a short link that led back to SEA website for about an hour Monday afternoon.

via TwitterThe back end of what appears to be an official website.

via TwitterThe gmail of what SEA alleges is an Obama staffer.