Asma Assad's Defaced Website a Hoax

A website pretending to be the defaced official blog of Syria's first lady, Asma Assad is a hoax, International Business Times UK has established.

A quick check traced the site's IP address to Scottsdale, Arizona, with a publishing date of 9 January, 2012.

"The site was registered yesterday and uses a privacy guard to filter the name of the owner. Hosted in Scottsdale, Arizona by Godaddy.com Inc," confirmed Sean Sullivan, Security Advisor at F-Secure.

Activists and bloggers flocked to Twitter to announce that Mrs Assad's official website had been defaced. "Website of Asma Assad, wife of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, hacked asmaassad.com #Syria," said C0d3Fr0sty.

The defaced homepage carries a Syrian flag and "Asma Assad, Official Website of Syria's First lady" as its banner. It also contains a statement that reads: "I am Asma Assad. I am the wife of a vicious war criminal. He commands our army to bomb and shell entire civilian cities. He murders innocent civilians. He sends his henchman to rape women and young girls as well as boys, torture children and snipe innocent civilians. He is currently decimating my hometown, Homs. He bombs mosques, churches, hospitals and his brutality knows no limits. He is trying to pit Alawites against Sunnis against Christians against Kurds. I told him this won't work, but he is confident that it will. He thinks he can fool the American public with pleasant interviews.

"I am Asma Assad, the Western-educated, progressive, fashionable, philanthropic desert rose. I am Asma Assad and I stand by my man! I'm with Bashar!"

Some Twitter users wondered if it was the work of Anonymous. But user C0d3Fr0sty wrote on the social network soon afterwards: "Cancel last tweet. That site was created just recently. Created: 09-Feb-12 Updated: 09-Feb-12 Expires: 09-Feb-13."

An independent search by International Business Times UK discovered that the website was registered by Godaddy.com LLC on 9 January, 2012.

Anonymous recently hacked the email account of Syrian President Bashar Assad's ministerial office and leaked the details on the web. The hacktivists stole and published email messages from over 78 inboxes belonging to Assad's aides and advisers.