Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cybersecurity
    • Cybersecurity

    AP News Service Hacked, Fake Tweet Says White House Attacked

    By
    Robert Lemos
    -
    April 24, 2013
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Cyber-attackers compromised systems at the Associated Press, gaining access to two Twitter accounts from which they falsely reported on April 23 that explosions had rocked the White House and President Barack Obama had been injured.

      The fake reports caused a short-lived panic on Wall Street, and markets dropped more than 1 percent but quickly recovered. The Associated Press, a news coalition that delivers content to thousands of newspapers and Web sites, acknowledged the attack in its own news article on the incident, saying the attack had been preceded by a phishing campaign.

      “The false tweet said there had been two explosions at the White House and that President Barack Obama was injured,” the Associated Press stated. “The attack on AP’s Twitter account and the AP Mobile Twitter account was preceded by phishing attempts on AP’s corporate network.”

      Pro-Syrian-government hackers claimed responsibility for compromising the accounts and sending the tweet, according to media reports. The preceding day, the same pro-Assad hackers had taken over the accounts of two CBS programs, “60 Minutes” and “48 Hours.”

      The April 23 tweet stated, “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.”

      The Associated Press’ White House correspondent, Julie Pace, quickly responded with a correction through her own account. “The @AP Twitter account has been suspended after it was hacked,” she posted on her Twitter page. “The tweet about an attack on the White House was false.”

      Twitter accounts are a popular target of hackers, who use them to publish prank messages or political attacks. In February, for example, hackers with an apparent connection with Anonymous hacked Burger King’s Twitter account, rebranded it as McDonald’s, and posted several prank statements. Also in February, Twitter unilaterally reset passwords for 250,000 accounts, following a compromise through which hackers gained access to limited user information.

      Security experts called for Twitter to offer two-factor authentication procedures that could protect high-profile companies and celebrities from such attacks.

      “There is a little bit of blame to go around here—not just the AP, but Twitter as well,” Tony Busseri, CEO of identity-management provider Route1, told eWEEK. “We are not doing enough around knowing who a person is before we give them access to digital resources.”

      Because the Twitter account hijack happened after the Associated Press had been targeted with a phishing campaign suggests that the attackers have a deeper level of access into the AP’s network than just through social media, Rick Westmoreland, a security analyst with cloud-security provider SilverSky, said in a statement sent to eWEEK.

      “The Twitter account is the tip of the iceberg and a sign that a much larger compromise of the company is possible (or) probable,” he stated.

      Avatar
      Robert Lemos
      Robert Lemos is an award-winning freelance journalist who has covered information security, cybercrime and technology's impact on society for almost two decades. A former research engineer, he's written for Ars Technica, CNET, eWEEK, MIT Technology Review, Threatpost and ZDNet. He won the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2003 for his coverage of the Blaster worm and its impact, and the SANS Institute's Top Cybersecurity Journalists in 2010 and 2014.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×