Obama Not Assassinated After All, but the Hackers Are Going For Rupert Murdoch
MORE -err- jokes from the hacking community, as the Fox News Twitter account was hacked and posted four tweets informing the nation that Barack Obama had been assassinated.
A group calling themselves ScriptKiddies obtained the password to the account and posted the five tweets below including: “#Obamadead, it’s a sad 4th of July. RT to support the late president’s family. The shooter will be found.”
Despite their use of catchy hashtag #obamadead, the tweet didn’t go very far, largely because there was no mention of the story on the Fox News site or indeed, anywhere else – because it was made-up shit that didn’t happen.
Thinq blog cleared up any confusion:
“Thankfully, the messages are false. Rather than coming from the newsdesks of what is sometimes laughingly referred to as ‘Faux News,’ the story instead originated from an attacker who took over the company’s Twitter feed.”
ScriptKiddies is usually a derogatory term for an unaccomplished hacker. But a short-lived Twitter account called ScriptKiddies claimed responsibility for the hack and also described themselves as a splinter group from Anonymous, as picked up by Gizmodo.
As with many of these hacks – see Sony, the NHS – the motivation is up for interpretation. Blogs guessed they were making fun of the stridently right-wing news channel. But in an interview with the ScriptKiddies on the student-run news website of Stony Brook University (don’t ask us why it’s there) a ScriptKiddie spokesperson gave this account of their motivations:
“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,” said the Script Kiddies representative.
The selection of Fox News as a target seems to have less to do with their politics as it does with the fact that they represent corporate America.
“It will be a never ending battle,” said the representative. “The names change from time to time like LulzSec and Anonymous or Script Kiddies. But their will always be a group of people that need to stand up for everyone else and attempt to keep the government in balance with it’s people. Without groups like Anonymous, what is there to prevent corruption?”
The source issued a warning to News Corp tycoon Rupert Murdoch:
Fox News may not be out of the woods yet. The Script Kiddies suggested that today’s Twitter hack was just the beginning for the News Corp.-owned outlet. “I’ve looked into their security and site defacement does not seem to be an option. Everything else,” said the representative, “is fair game.”
Those fake tweets in full:
Posted: 4th, July 2011 | In: Technology Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
