Update: Twitter sent us a statement. “While Twitter does monitor accounts for brute-force login attempts and similar methods of attack, we’re unable to anticipate compromises that take place due to offsite behavior,” Twitter said. “Generally speaking, we suggest using an email address associated with your domain or, if you do not have one, using two-factor authentication or being aware of best practices around password security in order to prevent attacks.”
Twitter added that Fox News said it had “identified the offsite vector that led to the compromise.” Fox News says the Secret Service is now investigating, but it has yet to release any details on what happened. The @foxnewspolitics account has followed up with a tweet explaining it was hacked.
Meanwhile, here’s a timely story with 5 (mostly obvious) tips on how to keep your Twitter account from getting hacked.
Earlier: The @foxnewspolitics Twitter account was hacked early Fourth of July morning with a series of tweets that claimed President Obama had been assassinated while campaigning in Iowa. The tweets remained up for 9 hours, by our estimate, and they finally disappeared at noon EST. Here’s a screen grab we took:
One of the fake tweets read, “BREAKING NEWS: President @BarackObama assassinated, 2 gunshot wounds have proved too much. It’s a sad 4th for #america. #obamadead RIP” The hacker group “Scriptkiddies” claimed responsibility. “Fox News was selected because we figured their security would be just as much of a joke as their reporting,” it said.
If the fake stories weren’t bad enough, many people on Twitter pleaded with Fox (to multiple accounts) and Twitter for several hours to remove them. Finally, the tweets disappeared, and as of this writing, @foxnewspolitics hasn’t sent out a tweet mentioning the hack, although FoxNews.com posted a story. “We will be requesting a detailed investigation from Twitter about how this occurred, and measures to prevent future unauthorized access into FoxNews.com accounts,” said Jeff Misenti, GM of Fox News Digital.
By the time the tweets disappeared, there were hundreds of news stories posted about the hacking, from newspaper sites to tech blogs. Sure, the holiday weekend is one thing — the accounts clearly weren’t staffed during that time — but the 9-hour delay (which conceivably could’ve been a caching issue, but unlikely) raises all kinds of questions beyond better password management.