A New Linux Distribution Announced…by The Syrian Electronic Army!

The Syrian Electronic Army, an infamous group of Syrian hackers in support of the Bashar al-Assad government regime, announced via twitter that their own distribution of Linux, named SEANux, will be coming your way “soon.” The tweet started a number of discussions around the web regarding the security, privacy and other aspects of this Linux distribution.

If you haven’t been following the news, the Syrian Electronic Army is responsible for a number of high-profile, yet relatively simple, phishing campaigns against a number of large media companies such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, CNN, The Financial Times, BBC, ITV, The Guardian, and others. Other well known companies that fell victim to the SEA include Microsoft, eBay, PayPal, Facebook, and more. To clarify, many of these companies were not hacked themselves. Rather, it was their company social media accounts that have been hacked.

With SEA’s criminal history, many agree that it’s unlikely that this Linux distribution will be clean of malicious code. Although we have nothing more than a tweet and a banner on their website to work with, some have gone so far as to guess what type of distribution it might be, while comparing it to some of the current ones out there. According to The Hacker News, it’s likely going to fit into these three types of distributions:

  1. Linux OS for Penetration testing and Hacking – Something similar to Kali Linux or Backtrack- includes privacy and security testing tools
  2. Forensics OS – Comes bundled with forensic tools
  3. An Anonymous OS – Something similar to Tails– provides anonymity and erases tracks