Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Viber Gets Attacked By Electronic Syrian Army


Viber Syrian Hack

Viber's online help desk, an instant-messaging and VoIP service was phished by pro-Syrian hackers. They claimed to have accessed e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and other personal information belonging to the company's users and employees.

Viber has confirmed the situation in which they have been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army.  This is a pro-government group of hackers in Syria aligned with the President Bashar al-Assad.  AppleSpot reported the hack affected the Viber support page, although it was very unclear to the extent upon which hackers accessed Viber systems.

Viber has now verified that the only hack allowed access of two small systems.  One being a customer support panel and the other a support administration system.  According to the company's official response, "no sensitive user data was exposed and Viber's databases were not 'hacked'." Viber did not attest weather or not the attack cam from the Syrian Electronic Army, though the hacker group does take responsibility for the compromise. Viber did claim the hack was the product of a phishing attack that was pinpointed on one of their employees.


Viber's Story


Viber is a system that allows user to send free text mesages, photo messages, video messages and share locations with other users. Viber users can make free HD-quality calls to other Viber users on iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Windows, Mac, and many other devices. There are more than 200 million users in over 193 countries, Viber is repeatedly evolving by introducing new platforms and adding new features to gain popularity.

Please visit http://www.hyphenet.com/blog/ for more posts on the latest technology and IT security news.

References:
Viber Attacked By Syrian Electronic Army - TechCrunch
http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/23/viber-attacked-by-syrian-electronic-army/
July 23, 2013

Viber’s online help desk sacked by pro-Syrian hackers - arstechnica
http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/07/vibers-online-help-desk-sacked-by-pro-syrian-hackers/
July 23, 2013

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