The Lebanese Al-Jadid/New TV channel recently aired a report on the Syrian Electronic Army, which wages electronic warfare in support of the Syrian regime. A member of the group claims that it hacked the websites of the Qatar foreign ministry and Emir’s office and of the Turkish foreign ministry and presidency.
Following are excerpts from the report which was posted on the Internet on March 13, 2014:
Click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV
Reporter: "A battle of the minds is taking place on the ground and in the electronic world. The Internet is its battlefield, and secret intelligence files are its target. Its soldiers are clandestine, unseen by the naked eye and unnoticed by man. Their goal is to infiltrate the electronic system of the enemy, and sometimes that of friends, in order to uncover what they are secretly planning.
"China has realized the value of technology and its ability to inflict grave losses upon the enemy – losses that no ground force is capable of inflicting. Therefore, just like the Israeli enemy and India, China gathered all the creative and professional hackers, and gave them the best equipment in the world, in order to make use of their experience and to establish an electronic force, capable of harming any country, without needing to resort to a confrontation on the ground.
"Thus, the Syrian Electronic Army is considered to be the second most powerful electronic army in the world. It recently carried out two attacks against the world's strongest cyber-security systems: the first against the database of the U.S. Pentagon, and the second against the headquarters of the Australian intelligence services, in which it stole top secret Australian documents.
"The Syrian Electronic Army is the most active army in the Arab virtual world. It was this army that hacked the AP news agency, and planted a news report about two explosions in the White House, in which President Obama was injured. This news item shocked the world and had an impact on stock exchanges all over the world, until it transpired that the Syrian Electronic Army was behind it.
"Al-Jadid TV has succeeded in contacting a member of this army."
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Distorted voice of member of SEA: "Our role in the Syrian Arab Army is to hack into emails and accounts of the opposition, and to obtain important information, as well as to hack communication between opposition leaders and the U.S. We gave the information to the Syrian Arab Army so that it could accomplish…"
Interviewer: "Do you steal information from them, or do you plant false information?"
Member of SEA: "That depends upon the objective. We hacked into the Qatari foreign ministry, the Emir's office…"
Interviewer: "When was this?"
Member of SEA: "About a year ago, but it wasn't publicized. There are documents that were publicized – documents of the Saudi Arabian Military Industries Corporation, and the Turkish file...The website of the Turkish foreign ministry and presidency were also hacked, and so were the websites of the defense ministry and of the air force intelligence."
Interviewer: "Do you have any proof of that?"
Member of SEA: "...a nondisclosure agreement between the Saudi Military Industries Corporation, and the American ATK company. This proves what I'm saying."
Interviewer: "How long does such a thing take you? Do you have time to do this?"
Member of SEA: "Of course we have time. It depends on the difficulty of the target. Some targets take a day or two, while others take a few hours. It depends how difficult it is to infiltrate the target. It can take a week or two."
Interviewer: "The key is to decipher the enemy's code?"
Member of SEA: "We have to hack the server and gain information from it."
Interviewer: "How many are you? A hundred? A thousand?"
Member of SEA: "We have thousands of members, but there are only 18 administrative officers."
Interviewer: "Only eight [sic].
"In light of the war that others have waged on the land of Syria, the Syrian Electronic Army wants to transfer the electronic war to the lands of others.
"This is Rachel Karam, reporting for Al-Jadid TV." […]
