From New York Times:
To the young Syrian rebel fighter, the Skype message in early December 2013 appeared to come from a woman in Lebanon, named Iman Almasri, interested in his cause. Her picture, in a small icon alongside her name, showed a fair-skinned 20-something in a black head covering, wearing sunglasses.
They chatted online for nearly two hours, seemingly united in their opposition to the rule of Bashar al-Assad… Eventually saying she worked “in a programing company in Beirut,” the woman asked the fighter whether he was talking from his computer or his smartphone. He sent her a photo of himself and asked for another of her in return. She sent one immediately, apologizing that it was a few years old.
“Angel like,” he responded. “You drive me crazy.”
It just so turns out that this woman was actually a pro-Assad hacker. She sent him another photo, which had some nasty malware in it, that began sending the contents of his computer to some server in allah-knows-where. Apparently, the malware picked the computer clean, stealing sensitive information about the fighter, his compatriots, and their rebel plans.
The report says the pro-Assad hackers stole large caches of critical documents revealing the Syrian opposition’s strategy, tactical battle plans, supply requirements and data about the forces themselves — which could be used to track them down.
