Report: Harvard website attacked by Syria hackers

Syrian hackers broke into the website of Harvard University, in what appeared to be a sophisticated attack. The hackers uploaded an image of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on the website of the academic institution, the British Broadcasting Co. (BBC) reported. "SyRiAn eLeCTronic ArMy WeRe HeRE," read a message on a screenshot of the defaced site, as posted on BBC. According to the BBC, the website was hacked Monday morning by what appeared to be sympathizers of President Assad. It said Assad was depicted as wearing a military uniform and appearing in front of a Syrian flag. It was linked to another image of Syrian national colors, with a message accusing the United States of involvement in the uprisings against President Assad. The BBC report said a further message "made terror threats" against the United States, which it criticized for opposing Assad's administration. "The university's homepage was compromised by an outside party this morning. We took down the site for several hours in order to restore it. The attack appears to have been the work of a sophisticated individual or group," the BBC quoted a Harvard spokesman as saying. Accusation In the defaced page, the Syrian Cyber Army accused the United States of supporting a "policy of killing" in Syria. The group also carried a threat of violent attack. "Do you support the war on Syria? If you are you, as well as the following Syria's population of 23 million people. This means 23 million mobile bomb. Imagine what we could do," it said. According to a Harvard spokesman, recent months have seen a rise in frequency and sophistication of these attacks, "with hacking groups increasingly on the offensive and targeting news media, government and education websites." "We are analyzing this event and will use the findings to improve our security practices for an environment that is seeing escalating threats," he said. — RSJ, GMA News