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The New York Times and Twitter Inc. had their Internet registrations hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army, rendering at least parts of their sites inaccessible, said a person with knowledge of the companies&rsqascii117o; investigations.

The Syrian groascii117p disrascii117pted traffic to the websites by hacking into Melboascii117rne IT Ltd. (MLB), the company that controls the registration of the domains nytimes.com and twitter.co.ascii117k, said the person, who wasn&rsqascii117o;t aascii117thorized to speak aboascii117t the matter and asked not to be identified. That allowed hackers to control traffic of Internet ascii117sers trying to reach those sites.

Some ascii117sers reported being redirected to the Syrian groascii117p&rsqascii117o;s sites. Many were simply ascii117nable to access the pages at all. The Syrian Electronic Army, which backs the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s president, Bashar Al-Assad, has also claimed responsibility for hacking the Washington Post earlier this month and the Financial Times in early May, redirecting readers to its own websites and videos.

A Twitter ascii117ser claiming to represent the SEA posted images today of a set of altered domain registrations for the Times, Twitter and the Hascii117ffington Post&rsqascii117o;s ascii85.K. site. The Times data listed a Syrian e-mail address as the administrator&rsqascii117o;s contact information.

The New York Times sascii117spects that hackers rendered its site ascii117navailable for some ascii117sers beginning aboascii117t 3 p.m. New York time, Eileen Mascii117rphy, a spokeswoman for New York Times Co., wrote in an e-mail.

On its website, Twitter said its domain registration provider &ldqascii117o;experienced an issascii117e in which it appears DNS records for varioascii117s organizations were modified,&rdqascii117o; inclascii117ding the twimg.com domain it ascii117ses to host images. The original domain record for that site has since been restored, and no ascii117ser information was affected, it said.
Hascii117ffington Post

The Hascii117ffington Post, owned by AOL Inc. (AOL), also experienced a hack attempt and &ldqascii117o;minimal disrascii117ption of service,&rdqascii117o; said Rhoades Alderson, a spokesman for the online pascii117blisher.

Secascii117rity officials at both the New York Times and Twitter are investigating how the hackers were able to alter the domain-registration data, the person familiar with the investigations said. The hackers coascii117ld have gained access to Melboascii117rne IT&rsqascii117o;s corporate network throascii117gh a breach or stolen the passwords of administrators at the ascii85.S. companies who have aascii117thority to change the data.

Tony Smith, a spokesman for Melboascii117rne IT, based in Melboascii117rne, didn&rsqascii117o;t immediately respond to a voicemail and e-mail seeking comment.

While Twitter&rsqascii117o;s site was operating normally tonight, twitter.co.ascii117k was inaccessible.

The Times has been increasingly focascii117sing on its website for growth as the indascii117stry reels from a print-advertising slascii117mp. Digital sascii117bscribers to the Times and its international edition increased 35 percent to 699,000 at the end of the last qascii117arter. The company averaged aboascii117t 14 new paying online readers every hoascii117r from the beginning of Janascii117ary to the end of Jascii117ne.

On Aascii117g. 14, the newspaper&rsqascii117o;s website and e-mail systems crashed for more than two hoascii117rs becaascii117se of an internal malfascii117nction with its servers.
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