Hackers Hit Fox News' Twitter; Tweet Obama Dead

By Paul Stanley, Christian Post Reporter Monday, July 04, 2011

Hackers took control of Fox News Politics’ Twitter account on Monday, posting inaccurate statements that President Obama had been assassinated in Iowa.

The President is fine and is enjoying his Fourth of July holiday with his family at the White House by hosting a cookout on the South Lawn for members of the military.

Early this morning, hackers infiltrated FoxNews.com’s Twitter feed and posted six false tweets. The news agency immediately alerted the U.S. Secret Service. George Ogilvie, a spokesman for the Secret Service, told The New York Times, “We’re not commenting on any of this.”

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@foxnewspolitics is one of several Twitter accounts operated by Fox News. FoxNews.com political news has 36,302 followers and has been inactive since Friday. However, at about 2 a.m. on Monday was when the first message was posted, saying, “just regained full access to our twitter and email. Happy 4th.” The second message posted said the president “has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July indeed.”

Subsequent tweets offered details about where the president had been shot and that he was shot at Ross’s restaurant in Iowa.

The final tweet said, “We wish @joebiden the best of luck as our new President of the United States. In such as time of madness, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

Jeff Misenti, vice president and general manager of Fox News Digital, said on the group’s website that it is working with Twitter to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

“We will be requesting a detailed investigation from Twitter about how this occurred, and measure to prevent future unauthorized access into FoxNews.com accounts,” Misenti said in a statement.

The news agency said they regretted any “distress” the false tweets may have created.

Several news sites are reporting that Script Kiddies, an anonymous hacking group, claimed responsibility for the tweets. The account icon had been changed from the Fox News Politics logo to a new one that reads: “H4CK3D BY TH3 5CR1PT K1DD3S.”

A representative of the group known as “Scriptkiddies,” said in an interview with Stony Brook University’s Think Magazine, “We are looking to find information about corporations to assist with antisec [a concerted hacker attack on corporate and government security]. Fox News was selected because we figured their security would be just as much of a joke as their reporting.”

Fox News is not the only press outlet of corporation that has been targeted this year. Sony’s PlayStation Network was hacked in April, exposing details of more than 75 million users. Also, “AnonymousIRC” – thought to be composed of known hackers, have attacked the web systems belonging to Arizona law enforcement agencies.