Harvard's Homepage Hacked

     Harvard closed down its homepage for several hours Tuesday morning after Syrian hackers posted political messages on the university's website.

    A group identifying themselves as the "Syrian Electronic Army" replaced Harvard's hompage with a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a message declaring "WeRe HeRe," according to BBC News. A following message made terrorist threats against the United States, warning that Syria's population of 23 million people could be turned into as many "mobile bomb[s]."

     The group claims that it was opposing a "policy of killing" carried out by the United States in Syria.

     Some students are bewildered at their school being the target of a cyber attack.Harvard student Daniel Rogers said that he "was surprised it was a Syrian militant group- I thought it would more likely be a student group like MIT or maybe CIT that was just trying to get its name out there."

     Harvard officials claim the hacking was carried out by a "sophisticated individual or group," reports CNET. With its homepage restored, Harvard says that it will be analyzing this event to imrpove their security practices.