Since the SEA’s first reported attack – on Harvard University’s home page in September 2011, replacing photos on the website with an image of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the words “Syrian Electronic Army Were Here” – the group has been credited with 11 attacks over the past two years.

September 26, 2011: The Syrian Electronic Army hacked into Harvard University’s homepage, replacing photos on the website with an image of Assad and the words “Syrian Electronic Army Were Here.”

August 2012: Reuters was the target of three different attacks, first on the news agency’s blog, then its Twitter feed, and then on its blog again. The Syrian Electronic Army said it was behind the attacks.

September 9: The SEA claimed responsibility for a hack into Al Jazeera’s SMS breaking news alert system. The hackers sent fake messages, including one stating that an attempt had been made to assassinate Qatar’s prime minister.

March 21, 2013: BBC Weather, Arabic, and Ulster Twitter accounts were hacked by the SEA. The attack included a series of tweets about weather conditions in the Middle East including “Chaotic weather forecast for Lebanon as the government decides to distance itself from the Milky Way.” The BBC regained control of its Twitter accounts within several hours.

April 15, 2013: Just before midnight, SEA messages began appearing on NPR-affiliated Twitter accounts, which were followed by a statement on SEA’s Twitter feed: “We will not say why we attacked @NPR … They know the reason and that enough #SEA #Syria.”

April 20, 2013: The SEA took credit for hacking the “60 Minutes” Twitter account and tweeted messages such as “The Syrian army’s fight is your fight. The Syrian army fights for all humanity.” The “60 Minutes” account was briefly suspended while the hack was investigated.

April 23, 2013: The SEA hacked into the Associated Press Twitter account and tweeted that a bomb had gone off in the basement of the White House, sending the Dow Jones into a brief tailspin.

April 29, 2013: The Guardian reported that 11 Twitter accounts affiliated with the newspaper were hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army.

May 17, 2013: The SEA hacked into the Human Rights Watch Twitter account, posting message such as “All Your reports are FALSE!! Stop lying!!!”

May 17, 2013: The Financial Times’s site and Twitter account were hacked by the SEA. Twelve posts entitled “Hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army” appeared on the FT’s tech blog, according to an article by the Financial Times.

August 15, 2013: Outbrain, a content recommendation service used by some major news outlets, was hacked by the SEA. The early-morning attack on Outbrain affected The Washington Post, Time, and CNN, but by the afternoon, Outbrain had fixed the security breach, and the news sites were back up and running. August 27, 2013: The SEA hack prevented The New York Times from getting its website up and running again until Aug. 28.

—Christian Science Monitor