In March 2013, according to the Washington Post, people from the Syrian Electronic Army - a group which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - hacked the Human Rights Watch (HRW) website and Twitter feed. The hackers did not take over the entire site, but made posts announcing they were there and condemning the HRW: "'All Your reports are FALSE !! Stop lying!!!' one message read. The messages on the HRW site redirect to the homepage of the Syrian Electronic Army."
The HRW "has conducted a number of searing investigations into the human rights abuses of Assad’s regime since fighting began in Syria." The Syrian Electronic Army used underhanded tactics in an attempt to fight back and defend their president from these reports. On Twitter, they merely posted a triumphant tweet linking back to their posts on the HRW website.
A few days later, according to The Guardian, the same group hacked the BBC weather Twitter feed and claimed to have also hacked @BBCarabicOnline and @bbcradioulster, but those hacks were not confirmed. Much like with the hacking of the HRW feed, the fake tweets held little content; the first tweet: "Syrian Electronic Army Was Here via @Official_SEA #SEA #Syria." and the second: "Long Live #Syria Al-Assad #SEA."
The hacks were short-lived and apparently superficial. Things could have been much worse because, according to the Washington Post, "the NGO [non-governmental organization, in this case HRW] works with many activists and civilians on the ground in Syria and other countries, whom they are careful to keep anonymous. So far, there’s no evidence to suggest that the information has been compromised."
The Syrian Electronic Army has been around for a few years and, according to The Atlantic, in 2011 they were "operating with at least tacit support from the regime" and using "DDoS attacks, phishing scams, and other tricks to fight opposition activists where they're strongest -- online." In the recent attacks, the group had some success but did not do significant damage to their so-called enemies. In the future, security should be tighter on the previously-hacked pages to prevent this from happening again. The Syrian Electronic Army will not stop trying to get their message out, but they will not stop groups like the Human Rights Watch from reporting on the terrible things happening in Syria.