User data safe after cyber attack: Skype

The SEA, a group of hackers who support Syrian President Bashar Assad, launched a cyber attack on Wednesday

Internet calling and messaging service Skype said that user data is safe after the Syrian Electronic Army momentarily took control of the company's Twitter feed and Facebook page.

The SEA, a group of hackers who support Syrian President Bashar Assad, launched a cyberattack Wednesday to protest against Skype owner Microsoft's cooperation with the National Security Agency's mass surveillance efforts.

"Don't use Microsoft emails (hotmail, outlook), they are monitoring your accounts and selling the data to the governments. More details soon. #SEA," read a message posted on Skype's official Twitter feed.

Though Skype quickly regained control of its accounts on social networks and its blog, the hackers had time to send several messages.

Documents leaked last year by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden said that Skype was part of the NSA programme to track communications through the biggest internet companies in the US.

"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," a Skype spokesperson said Thursday. "No user information was compromised."

This was not the first SEA attack, since it had already hacked several times last year the websites of The New York Times and Financial Times and one of the BBC's Twitter accounts.