Reuters Hacked Again, Saudi Minister “Dies” in Phony Blog Post

Hackers breached Reuters News’ blogging platform and a phony message claiming Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal had died was illicitly posted, Reuters said.

“Reuters did not report the false story and the post was immediately deleted,” Barb Burg, director of global communications at Reuters News, said in a statement. “We are working to address the problem.”

This is the second time this month that the blogging platform has been hacked. On August 3, the news company shut its platform temporarily after it was compromised with fake reports citing military setbacks for the rebel group Free Syrian Army which fights Assad regime.

Reuters also suspended a Twitter account at the beginning of the month after it started to promote fabricated tweets purportedly coming from journalists. Attackers broke the Reuters Tech account, renamed it “TechMe,” and posted false messages about the Syrian rebels’ defeat.

All the incidents remain under investigation, and Reuters said it had no immediate information on who was behind the hackings.

The news follows a report released by the Electronic Frontier Foundation with new evidence of malware attacks targeting Syrian dissidents with fake security software. The watchdog group warned that “AntiHacker” allegedly installs DarkComet Remote Access Trojan to spy on Syrian activists.