Skype’s social media platform was reportedly hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army.
The Microsoft-developed freemium voice-over-IP platform called Skype was hacked by a group of cybercriminals claiming to be members of the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA).
The army posted numerous anti-surveillance messages warning and told people not to use e-mail services of Microsoft, including Hotmail and Outlook.
The intruders said in Skype’s blog and Twitter account, “Don't use Microsoft emails (hotmail, outlook). They are monitoring your accounts and selling the data to the governments.”
The post has been deleted by Skype a few hours after it was posted.
Though the instant messaging app claimed hearsays true, they refuted news about stolen data assuring its users that “no user information was compromised.”
The Syrian Electronic Army, a vocal supporter of President Bashar al-Assad, claimed recent cyber attacks on one of America’s most popular news sites, The New York Times, and the social networking site, Twitter.
The group also aimed for other media companies like the BBC, CNN, and the Guardian.
The hacking comes after Edward Snowden’s recent disclosures on surveillance programs carried out by the U.S. National Security Agency.
Snowden is a former CIA employee and NSA contractor who leaked confidential NSA documents to several media means, which exposed operational details of a global surveillance device used by the federal agency.
According to the leaked documents, the intelligence agencies had a “backdoor” access to major technology companies including, AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, PalTalk, Skype, Yahoo, and Youtube.
The major tech companies implicated, however, denied any involvement with the controversial surveillance program.
Late last year, Microsoft, along with seven other companies, formed an alliance they branded “Reform Government Surveillance” group.
The group has called for a “wide scale” modification to the U.S. government surveillance.
Furthermore, the group even wrote a letter addressed to the US President and Congress saying that the surveillance program “undermines the freedom we all cherished.”
