International Biz Times website gets hacked

Someone purporting to be the Syrian Electronic Army claimed to have hacked the International Business Times website Wednesday evening and removed a story titled “The Syrian Army Is Shrinking, And Assad Is Running Out Of Soldiers.”

Alessandria Masi of the Business Times writes, “The group also appeared to have taken over prominent features of IBTimes’ front page, replacing a column of news stories titled “In Depth” with “Hacked by SEA.” The heading later disappeared altogether after being fixed.

“The deleted story, written by this reporter, cited a report from the Institute for the Study of War that stated Syrian President Bashar Assad’s armed forces had shrunk from 325,000 to an estimated 150,000 because of widespread death, defection and desertion among soldiers.

“The article also stated that there is growing anti-regime and anti-war frustration among certain pro-Assad Alawites in certain areas of Syria and other minority groups aligned with the regime. Their discontent comes, in part, from high casualty numbers among the regime forces which have discouraged possible army recruits.

“With the number of troops at his disposal dwindling, Assad has looked to untraditional army units that include foreign fighters, National Defense Force volunteers and local militias armed by the regime.”

Read more here. The CNBC site was hacked earlier this fall.