Syria Vehement As Pres. Obama Mulls Options with Congressional Heavyweights
Australia and United States to Lose out in Internet Warfare over Syria Conflict
According to Australia’s domain registrar, Melbourne IT’s corporate communications chief, the company said in an email it will review information related to how the Syrian Electronic Army got hold of private credentials to halt site traffic for the New York Times, Twitter and the Huffington Post UK.
“We are currently reviewing our logs to see if we can obtain information on the identity of the party that has used the reseller credentials, and we will share this information with the reseller and any relevant law enforcement bodies,” said the Melbourne IT executive, reports Forbes’ Andy Greenberg.
The SEA did not leave anything to the imagination, says Greenberg and the Syrian group’s hack of U.S. sites could not have come at a better time. It comes on Tuesday, (U.S. eastern) while reports of fresh chemical attacks come in from Syria from the Jerusalem Post.
It is no wonder that President Barack Obama has not decided on an attack on Syria, even as UK Prime Minister Cameron and others in the European Union like the French president mount pressure against Syria for using chemicals banned by international treaties on civilians protesting against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Assad and his ministry has said they will defend themselves against an attack.
Meanwhile Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd while speaking to David Cameron "agreed that it was increasingly certain that the (Syrian) regime was responsible for the attack, particularly since the regime had refused to give the UN immediate access to the site, which demonstrated that they had something to hide,'' a 10 Downing Street spokesperson told The Australian.
Despite a United front by Western Powers to stop innocents being killed by chemical weapons, a cruel practice by Assad by any measure, the SEA's messages such as "Hi @Twitter, look at your domain, its owned by #SEA :)" and "Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army" are also mind warfare that may influence U.S. position of the U.S. on Assad.
Reports have already said that this is not about overthrowing the Assad government, but ending the practice of using chemical agents as declared by the United Nations and international treaties.
Yet the question lingers that if SEA have the know - how to conduct a second attack, they could just take apart all the news sites in the U.S. That's a far stretch by any means but still a possiblity.
There is also a take home message for Australia and Kevin Rudd, because Melbourne IT, the domain registrar for the Web sites hacked on Tuesday, seems to be the most vulnerable of all Internet hosts. And no analysis of how the SEA got inside to hack the system or what private credentials were violated is going to prevent another attack at this time. The know-how is simply not there.
But if it happens it could be even more embarrassing to the Obama Administration after a number of "in your face" moments particularly with Edward Snowden, the renegade NSA intelligence leaker that a propaganda flash against the noble administration that President Obama represents.