Amnesty International's Live Wire blog was hacked last month. (Credit: Amnesty International, screenshot)

Fake blog posts were published on Amnesty International’s blog, Amnesty tweeted Aug. 27.

According to the Associated Press, the hackers posted at least one fake story that “claimed that a research mission conducted by Amnesty inside Syria has uncovered ‘crimes against humanity committed by the Syrian rebels,’ including prisoner abuse and execution” and “called on the United Nations to impose an arms embargo on nations supporting the Syrian opposition.”

We wrote to Amnesty asking how many posts were published, how long the posts were live, what the posts were about, who was behind the hack, and what measures Amnesty has taken to prevent future attacks.  Amnesty International News and Media’s managing editor Ben Davies provided us with Amnesty’s Aug. 28 statement on the hack, that reads:

“A blog site belonging to Amnesty International – Livewire – was targeted on Monday by hackers who posted fake blog posts, including one that took a strong pro-Syrian government stance.

“Amnesty International takes this matter seriously.  As soon as we became aware of the security breach, the fake posts were removed and steps have now been taken to secure this part of Amnesty.org.

“It should be noted that the site that was hacked is a WordPress based blog, separate to the rest of Amnesty International’s digital infrastructure. This is a site used by Amnesty International staff to tell human rights stories.  It does not carry sensitive data.”

We wrote earlier this week when Al Jazeera’s website was hacked.  A statement posted by the hackers claimed that the hack was “a response to your position against the people and government of Syria, especially your support of the armed terrorist groups and spreading false fabricated news,” according to the Guardian. Reuters’ “blogging platform” was hacked twice this summer and fake stories about Syria and Saudi Arabia were posted.

Hat Tip: The New York Times