The Syrian Electronic Army, an amorphous hacker collective that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, claimed credit on Wednesday for hacking into the social media accounts of Internet calling service Skype, Reuters reported.
The contact information of Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Corp's retiring chief executive, was also posted by the group on its Twitter account along with the message, "You can thank Microsoft for monitoring your accounts/emails using this details. #SEA." It was an apparent reference to revelations made by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that Skype, which is owned by Microsoft, was part of the NSA's program to monitor communications through some of the biggest U.S. Internet companies last year.
"Don't use Microsoft emails (hotmail, outlook), they are monitoring your accounts and selling the data to the governments. More details soon. #SEA," read a message posted on Skype's official Twitter feed on Wednesday, apparently by the hacking group.
Skype's official Facebook pages and on a blog on its website had similar messages before they were taken down later in the afternoon. The SEA later tweeted out copies of the message "for those who missed it."
Microsoft representatives could not be reached for comment, Reuters reported.
According to Reuters, Microsoft and other technology companies were especially made partners by the NSA's practices of government surveillance efforts against private citizens in the United States and elsewhere.
Microsoft joined seven other top technology companies last month in pressing President Barack Obama to rein in the U.S. government's electronic spying in a meeting at the White House, Reuters reported. Syrian Electronic Army and other hacker activist groups have repeatedly targeted media companies such as the New York Times and the BBC in order to deface websites and take over Twitter accounts.
Obama and his national security team are trying to decide what recommendations to adopt from an outside panel's review of the NSA's activities.
