College hockey fans looking to discuss their favorite teams on the United States College Hockey Organization (USCHO) Fan Forum on Sunday night were greeted with a surprising redirect: a pro-President Assad message.
In what appears to be a random hacking by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), anyone who attempted to reach a page on the fan forum was instead brought to a page containing “A Message from Syria to the World.” The attack was similar to other work by the SEA in defacing websites to spread pro-Assad propaganda.
The attack was first noticed by Twitter users at around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday night.
The official USCHO Twitter acknowledged the hacking at 7:46 a.m. on Monday morning. As of 9 a.m., the forum has been taken offline.
We're aware of issues with our Fan Forum. Great start to a Monday, eh? We'll let you know when we know more. Sorry for the inconvenience.
— USCHO.com (@USCHO) September 9, 2013
It is unclear which college hockey team the Syrian government supports.
Update: According to USCHO Executive Editor Todd Milewski, the hackers took advantage of a security defect in the forum software and were able to post content that would redirect people to their website. The problem has since been fixed.