UPDATE - Jan. 1, 11:50 p.m. ET: A Skype spokesperson told Mashable, “We recently became aware of a targeted cyber attack that led to access to Skype’s social media properties, but these credentials were quickly reset. No user information was compromised."
Skype is the latest victim of hacking by the Syrian Electronic Army.
The VoIP service's Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as its official blog, were compromised Wednesday afternoon.
Around 4:30 p.m. ET, Skype's Twitter account published a tweet that discouraged people from using Microsoft emails, and retweeted a similar message originally posted on the SEA's Twitter account. The two hacked tweets remained on Skype's account as of 6:30 p.m. ET.
An identical message appeared on Skype's Facebook page, but was quickly removed, according to TheNextWeb.
Two posts on the company's official blog also show signs of hacking by the SEA. One post is entitled "Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army.. Stop Spying!"
As of 6 p.m. ET, both posts and Skype's entire blog redirect to the company's homepage.
The Syrian Electronic Army also published other tweets that publicized its hacking of Skype's social-media accounts and blog.
Last year, the anonymous group, whose mission is to unleash pro-government propaganda on the Internet, hacked the Twitter accounts of CBS, E! Online, The Financial Times and even parody-news site The Onion.
For its hackings, SEA typically publishes pro-Syrian government messages, but the Wednesday incident involving Skype seemed to focus more on privacy issues.
Skype was under fire for its possible connection to the U.S. National Security Agency, after a July report alleged that the Microsoft-owned company allowed communications to be intercepted and handed over to the NSA.
Skype did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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