Syrian Electronic Army hacks into Truecaller database

Truecaller, a collaborative phone directory that uses crowdsourcing to build its database, has allegedly been hacked into by a group that calls itself the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA).

The group of hackers claimed to have access to more than a million Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google and Yahoo accounts that are linked to the Truecaller service. "Sorry @Truecaller, we needed your database, thank you for it :)," read the group's post on the microblogging website.

The SEA's website also declared that the over 600GB of hacked data had been sent to the Syrian government.

Founded in 2009, Sweden-based Truecaller is available on the web and as an app for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Windows phones. The service works by collecting contact information stored in the users' phones or on their social networking profiles.

The SEA claims to have defaced or compromised several websites in the past — their most highlighted work arguably being the attack on the Associated Press news agency. On April 23, 2013, the group had tweeted from the wire service's account that the White House was attacked and that President Barack Obama had been injured.

If the latest claim made by the SEA is to be believed, users from countries such as China, Turkey and Hong Kong are among those hit by the 'hack-attack'. The group posted a screenshot on its Twitter account showing contact details of users from these countries, 15 hours after the first post related to the Truecaller attack was made.

Truecaller has officially confirmed that it was hacked. Read statement