This Just In!
Looks like Fox News didn’t choose a very secure password for their Twitter account, because as I just heard through Jammus, their Twitter page looks a little, uh, odd.
Note all of the updates until 43 minutes ago came through “Perl Net::Twitter”, but this last one saying “Bill O Riley is gay” just came in via the web. Means somebody figured out the Twitter password, and posted an update via the web.
I bet the hacker then turned around and changed the password for the FoxNews account, thereby preventing the legit owners from updating the Twitter feed and deleting the post. That would explain why there haven’t been any automated updates since the, uh, questionable post.
Lesson for hackers: please get somebody’s name right when you defame them. They misspelled Bill’s last name, thereby making this quite a bit less funny. If it’d looked completely legit, maybe even linked to a pr0n site, then it would have been truly hilarious.
Lesson for users: pick a separate password for your Twitter account. Don’t use the same one as your banking accounts or anything like that, puleeze. It’s bad enough to be inconvenienced by a hacker mucking with your Twitter account, but to have your bank account emptied out, that’d really suck.
UPDATE: the tweet has been deleted, but check out the screenshot for posterity.
More of My Twitter Articles
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- Top 10 Reasons I *AM* Following You – how I pick who gets past my virtual bouncer.
- Twitter T-Shirts and Coffee Cups – you can get Twitter shirts with the fail whale, or get your own Twitter profile on a shirt.
- Twitter RT, OH, HT: The Slang Explained – I talk about what these cryptic terms mean and how to use them correctly.
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- Browse All Posts Tagged “Twitter”
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Thanks for the laugh this morning Brent.
I think @BarackObama's account is likely to have been hacked as well. Either that or his energy plan involves $500 gas giveaways to tell him if you like him or not.
Ooo, yep – now http://twitter.com/barackobamais down altogether. Innnteresting. Lookin' bad.
Can you prove he isn't gay?
There's been a sophisticated automated phishing attempt against twitter users within the last week. A large number of blogspot blogs were created and twitter users were sent directed messages telling them there was an entry about themselves at that blog. The blog then required that they enter their twitter account information for verification and blammo. Identity stolen.
details: http://blog.twitter.com/2009/01/gone-phishing.htm…