The websites of the New York Times and Twitter suffered problems after a hack by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) that maliciously edited the domain name details registered by Melbourne IT. The SEA was able to gain access to Melbourne IT's system where the domains were registered, allowing them to change DNS settings and point the domains to SEA's own websites instead. While Twitter remained active, other properties like image storage domain twimg.com were disrupted. Media organizations are increasingly facing more sophisticated attacks beyond simple denial-of-service attacks.
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1. Name :NovitaAjengPrimantari
Class of CCIT-UIN
Translation
NewYorkTimesandTwitterstruggleafterSyrianhack
The websites of the New York Times and Twitter are still suffering problems related to a
damaging hack carried out on Tuesday.
The newspaper and social network were hit after their domain name details were maliciously
edited by hackers.The Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), a group supporting Syrian president
Bashar al-Assad, says it carried out the attack.It is the most severe attack so far carried out by the
group.In recent months, the hackers have targeted major media companies including the
Financial Times, Washington Post, CNN and BBC.But in this latest attack, the SEA was able to
cause more sustained damage with a technique which also saw news and comment site the
Huffington Post hit.The attacked domains were managed by hosting company Melbourne IT,
which has said it is looking at "additional layers of security" for protecting domain details.
DNS changes
The attack focused on editing DNS - Domain Name System - information.The DNS is used to
direct web traffic to a specific server containing the website a user wants to visit.In simple terms,
it means we can browse the web using easy-to-remember addresses like bbc.com, rather than by
IP addresses - a string of numbers separated by dots.
Media attacks seem to be escalating and moving away from annoying, simple denial-of-
service attacks and toward full domain compromise”
2. The SEA was able to gain access to Melbourne IT's system, where Twitter and the New York
Times registered their respective domains.It meant that the hackers could change DNS details so
that instead of, for example, "nytimes.com" taking you to the Times' servers, the domain was
instead pointed to a website hosted by the SEA.
In Twitter's case, the SEA targeted twimg.com - a separate domain that the social network used
to store image data, as well as styling code.While Twitter itself remained active, the disruption to
twimg.com meant many pages displayed incorrectly.In a statement, Twitter said that no user data
had been affected.
The SEA used its Twitter account to publicise the attacks on both sites, posting images of its
work."Hi @Twitter," the group said in one tweet, "look at your domain, its owned by #SEA :)"
'Through the front door'
Melbourne IT blamed the breach on a reseller - a third party that sells domains through the
company's system.Melbourne IT said the reseller's log-in credentials had been obtained, and that
with them the SEA could enter through the "front door" and carry out the attack."If you've got a
valid user name and password," chief executive Theo Hnarakis told ABC (Australia), "the
assumption from our systems is that you are the authorized owner and user of that domain
name."
In a further statement, the company said: "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."The company
advised those wanting to make sure their domains were fully protected to use "additional registry
lock features" that they offered.
Perseverance
3. During its downtime, the New York Times has been publishing new articles on its Facebook
page as well as a mirror site.Meanwhile, Mark Frons, the company's chief information officer,
cautioned staff to "be careful when sending email communications until this situation is
resolved".Ken Westin, a security researcher for Tripwire, an online security company, told the
BBC: "Media attacks seem to be escalating and moving away from annoying, simple denial-of-
service attacks and toward full domain compromise which, if successful, puts millions of NYT
website users at risk."In January, the New York Times said hackers had accessed its website and
stolen the passwords of 53 employees after it published a report on the wealth of then Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao's family.As it did after that NYT disruption, competitor Wall Street
Journal took down its paywall on Tuesday and offered its content free to all visitors.
Michael Fey, chief technology officer at cybersecurity firm McAfee, said that as long as media
organisations played a crucial role in reporting news and influencing debate, they would continue
to be targets of cyber-attacks."Regardless of technology or tactics deployed, we should expect to
see more of these attacks,'' he said.
4. Perjuangan New York Times dan Twitter setelah hack Suriah
Situs-situs New York Times dan Twitter masihmenderitamasalah yang berkaitandengan
hack merusak yang dilakukanpadahariSelasa.
Suratkabardanjaringansosialterkenasetelahrinciannama domain
merekadenganjahatdieditolehhackers.TentaraElektronikSuriah (SEA), sebuahkelompok yang
mendukungPresidenSuriah Bashar al - Assad , mengatakanmelakukanpenyerangan.
Iniadalahserangan yang paling parahsejauhini yang
dilakukanolehkelompok.Padabeberapabulanterakhir, para hacker telahmenargetkanperusahaan-
perusahaan media besartermasuk Financial Times, Washington Post, CNN dan BBC.Namun,
padapenyeranganterakhir, SEA dapatmenyebabkankerusakanlebihberkelanjutandenganteknik
yang jugamelihatberitadansituskomentar Huffington Post.Domain yang
diserangdikelolaolehperusahaan hosting IT Melbourne, yang telahdikatakanmerekamelihat
"lapisantambahankeamanan" untukmelindungirincian domain.
PerubahanDNS
Serangandifokuskanpadamengubahinformasi DNS - Domain Name System. DNS
digunakanuntuklalulintas web langsungke server tertentu yang berisi website pengguna yang
inginberkunjung. Padaistilahsederhana, iniberartikitadapatmenelusuri web menggunakanalamat
yang mudahdiingatseperti bbc.com, daripadaalamat IP – sebuahnomor string yang
dipisahkanoleh dot.
5. Serangan Media tampaknyameningkatdanmenjengkelkan ,serangandenial - of-service
(jenisserangan dengancaramenghabiskansumber yang dimilikiolehkomputertersebut)yang
sederhanadanpenuhkompromiterhadap domain.
SEA mampumendapatkanakseskesistem IT Melbourne , di mana Twitter dan New York Times
mendaftarkanmasing-masing domains. Iniberarti hacker dapatmengubahrincianDNS, misalnya ,
" nytimes.com " membawaAndake server milik Times , domain itumenunjukkesebuahsitus web
yang di-host oleh SEA .
DalamkasusTwitter , SEA ditargetkan twimg.com - domain terpisah yang
jaringansosialgunakanuntukmenyimpan data gambar, serta styling Twitter code. Sementara,
twitter sendiritetapaktif ,gangguanterhadap twimg.com berartibanyakhalaman yang
ditampilkantidakbenar. Padasebuahpernyataan, Twitter mengatakanbahwatidakada data
penggunatelahterpengaruh.
SEA menggunakanakun Twitter untukmempublikasikanserangan di keduasitus,
memasukangambardarikerjaanya . "Hi @ Twitter, "kata kelompokitudalamsatutweet , "Lihat
domain Anda , inidimilikioleh # SEA :) "
"Melaluipintudepan”
IT Melbourne menyalahkanpelanggaranpada reseller - pihakketiga yang menjual domain
melaluisistemperusahaan. IT Melbourne mengatakan mandate log-in yang dimiliki reseller
telahdiperoleh, dandenganmereka SEA dapatmasukmelalui " pintudepan "
danmelaksanakanseranganitu. " JikaAndapunyanamapenggunadan password yang valid ," kata
ketuaeksekutif Theo Hnarakis ABC (Australia), "asumsidarisistem kami
adalahbahwaAndaadalahpemilikresmidanpenggunanama domain .
Dalampernyataanlebihlanjut ,perusahaanmengatakan : " Kami sedangmeninjau log kami
untukmelihatapakahkitadapatmemperolehinformasitentangidentitaspihak yang
telahmenggunakanmandat reseller , dan kami akanmembagiinformasiinidengan reseller
dansetiapbagianpenegakanhukum yang relevan. "Perusahaan menyarankanmereka yang
6. inginmemastikan domain merekasepenuhnyadilindungiuntukmenggunakan"
tambahanfiturkunciregistri " yang merekatawarkan .
Ketekunan
Selamapenghentiannya, New York Times telahmenerbitkanartikelbaru di halaman
Facebook-nyasamasepertimirror site (situs yang serupa). Sementara, Mark frons, chief
information officer perusahaan, memperingatkanstafuntuk" berhati-
hatiketikamengirimkankomunikasimelalui email sampaisituasiinidiselesaikan ". Ken Westin,
seorangpenelitikeamananuntuk tripwire, sebuahperusahaankeamanan online, mengatakankepada
BBC: " serangan Media tampaknyameningkatdanmenjengkelkan, serangandenial - of-service
yang sederhanadanpenuhkompromiterhadap domain yang jikaberhasil ,
menempatkanjutaanpenggunasitus NYT beresiko”. PadabulanJanuari, New York Times
mengatakan hacker telahmengaksessitus web danmencuri password dari 53
karyawansetelahmenerbitkanlaporantentangkekayaankeluarga Premier China Wen Jiabao.
SetelahgangguanNYT ,pesaing Wall Street Journal
menurunkanpaywallpadaSelasadanmenawarkankonten gratis untuksemuapengunjung .
Michael Fey ,kepalakantorteknologi di perusahaancybersecurity McAfee ,
mengatakanbahwaselamaorganisasi media
memainkanperanpentingdalammelaporkanberitadanmempengaruhiperdebatan ,
merekaakanterusmenjadisasaranserangan cyber . "Terlepasdariteknologiatautaktikdikerahkan
,kitaharusberharapuntukmelihatlebihbanyakseranganini , '' katanya