Syrian hackers strike back at Anonymous

Not all hackers are united. That could not be more evident based on the latest hacking attempt, this time on Anonymous rather than by its own members.

Of course, Anonymous did do something to incite the attack. The worldwide network recently took credit for defacing Syria's Ministry of Defence website, which prompted some loyal citizens and hackers to strike back. They did so by posting the following message with some disturbing photographs on Anonymous' social network, AnonPlus.

In response to your hacking to the website of the Syrian Ministry of Defence, the Syrian people have decided to purify the internet of [y]our pathetic website.

Syrian hackers strike back against Anonymous.
(Credit: Screenshot by ZDNet US)

The images and the post were still live on AnonPlus' home page when this article was published. (Viewer discretion is advised.)

However, Anonymous has not come out and specifically named anyone who they believe or know to be responsible.

ComputerWorld reports that a group dubbed as the Syrian Electronic Army, as cited in a tweet from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, is responsible for defacing AnonPlus. They could be the likely culprits as the group has been reportedly known to attack other sites critical of Syria in the past.

Breaking into Syria's defence websites isn't the first time that Anonymous has breached a governmental network. This was actually one of Anonymous' more hacktivist-like campaigns, as it was decrying the "brutal regime of [Syrian President] Bashar Al-Assad."

However, this is the first time, at least on this scale, that we've seen other hackers turn on Anonymous with nationalism as the motive — if that is even what happened.