Hackers hijack Fox News Twitter page, announce Obama's death

[News_Editor]

Hackers hijack Fox News Twitter page, announce Obama's death

2011-07-04 18:17:52 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Hackers calling themselves 'The Script Kiddies' on early Monday morning hijacked a webpage belonging to Fox News on the social networking website Twitter. They later posted false reports that U.S. President Barack Obama had been assassinated.

The hackers took over the account of Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) with its 33,000 followers just after midnight Eastern time. "Fox News Politics [has been] hacked by The Script Kiddies! More embarrassment for Fox News is [imminent]," the first message said.

Several other tweets followed soon after, some of them promising 'future releases' and pledging support to hacking group Anonymous. "TheScriptKiddies would love to assist with #antisec (Anti-Security) in anyway you need assistance," one post, directed at a Twitter account representing Anonymous, said.

But the person or people behind The Script Kiddies appeared to change their approach after opening a discussion on 4chan, a website which is also popular with supporters of Anonymous. "Hey /b/. Ask someone who hack[ed] Fox News an hour ago anything," the message on 4chan said.

One of the users on 4chan pointed out that their postings would have made a bigger impact if 'The Script Kiddies' had posted a fake news story such as the death of U.S. President Barack Obama. "I was moving too quick, I wanted my group to get media attention, rather than Fox getting negative attention," a reply from 'The Script Kiddies' said.

Minutes later, the Fox News Twitter account posted an update that it had regained full access to its Twitter account and email. "Just regained full access to our Twitter an email. Happy 4th," the update said in an apparent attempt to make users believe its future updates would be actual news from Fox News.

As previous messages which indicated that the account was hacked were deleted, @foxnewspolitics began tweeting about a fake attack on Obama. "President @BarackObama shot at in Iowa restaurant, no word yet on his condition. 2 bullets hit, sources say," the message said.

Follow up messages said Obama had been hospitalized at Audobon County Memorial Hospital in Audubon, Iowa in a critical condition. Updates then appeared saying Obama had passed away on early Monday morning, which is also Independence Day, or Fourth of July.

"BREAKING NEWS: President @BarackObama assassinated, 2 gunshot wounds have proved too much. It's a sad 4th for #america. #obamadead RIP," one of the messages said.

As the Fox News account has been verified by Twitter, meaning that Twitter has confirmed the account is normally operated by Fox News, some users of the social networking website thought the reports were true. The false reports were still being spread through Twitter hours later.

In an interview with Think Magazine, a person representing The Script Kiddies said two of its members were a member of Anonymous. "We hope to be working with them soon," the representative told Think Magazine.

Asked why it hijacked the Twitter account he or she said: "We are looking to find information about corporations to assist with antisec. Fox News was selected because we figured their security would be just as much of a joke as their reporting."

The Script Kiddies' postings on 4chan also indicated that they had gained access to internal emails of Fox News employees, but the group did not immediately provide any evidence to support those claims.

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