The Syrian Electronic Army hacked into the Twitter account of French newspaper Le Monde, after claiming that the newspaper and the French government "supported terrorism in Syria."
The hackers' group, which has pledged loyalty to Syrian President Bashar Assad, took responsibility for the hack through posts on their Twitter account, in which it also condemned the terror attacks in France.
"We have successfully hacked Le Monde and we will never fail to deliver our message of peace and anti-terrorism," the hackers said. "The Syrian Electronic Army condemns terrorism in France, but Le Monde and French government supported terrorism in Syria".
Le Monde announced that it has taken control over its account soon after the hack.
"The hackers managed to infiltrate our publishing tool before launching a denial of service," Le Monde staff announced on the website. "We apologize for any fraudulent posts on our behalf."
We have successfully hacked Le Monde and we will never fail to deliver our message of peace and anti-terrorism. #SEA pic.twitter.com/Mw3eS4xvqO
— SyrianElectronicArmy (@Official_SEA16) January 21, 2015
The Syrian Electronic Army condemns terrorism in France, but @LeMondefr and French government supported terrorism in #Syria. #SEA — SyrianElectronicArmy (@Official_SEA16) January 21, 2015
The Syrian Electronic Army has previously hacked accounts of several media houses in recent months, including websites of the BBC, Reuters, The New York Times and even of software bigwig, Microsoft.
Other newspapers that were targeted by the hackers were London newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and Evening Standard, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and New York Daily News.
