Skype Hacked By SEA: Syrian Electronic Army Protests Microsoft Involvement In NSA Spying Programs

The Syrian Electronic Army logo Syrian Electronic Army

The official blog and social media accounts belonging to Skype, a Web calling and video chat service owned by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), appear to have been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army on New Year’s Day.

The SEA, a team of anonymous hackers loyal to Syrian President Bashar al Assad and known for a number of attacks against Western media organizations in 2013, hijacked Skype’s Twitter and Facebook accounts as well as its official blog. The attack appears to be in retaliation for revelations by Edward Snowden that Microsoft gave the National Security Agency access to users’ account information and emails.

“Don’t use Microsoft emails (hotmail, outlook), They are monitoring your accounts and selling it to the governments #SEA [sic],” the SEA said via the official Skype page on Facebook. Skype appears to have regained control of the Facebook account and the post has been removed.

The SEA used Skype’s Twitter account to tweet a similar message. On its own Twitter account, the SEA tweeted what it claims is a picture of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s personal Skype information.