UPDATED 13:54 EDT / SEPTEMBER 13 2011

NEWS

NBC’s Twitter Account Hacked, Announces False Terrorism Strikes

NBC’s Twitter account was hacked Friday evening and released a string of false Ground Zero terrorist attack tweets. Intended or coincidental, the account was breached just days before the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Riding the wave of rumination, aren’t we? The hacker group introduced themselves as “The Script Kiddies” and even FBI is currently investigating the incident mainly because it concerns terrorism.

“Breaking News! Ground Zero has just been attacked. Flight 5736 has crashed into the site, suspected hijacking. more as the story develops,” wrote the first tweet at 5:49pm.

It was followed by another tweet alleging, “Flight 4782 is not responding, suspected hijacking. One plane just hit Ground Zero site at 5:47. #groundzeroattacked.”

And finally, the hackers said “This is not a joke, Ground Zero has just been attacked. We’re attempting to get reporters on the scene. #groundzeroattacked.”

NBC was pretty snappy in their response and immediately repudiated the first three fake tweets. “Ignore tweets from @nbcnews till further notice. We’ve been hacked. Do not retweet,” tweets Vivian Schiller, Chief Digital Officer for NBC News and MSNBC. Ryan Osborn, Director of Social Media at NBC News backs Schiller and egged on followers not to retweet the false claims. “The @NBCNews account has been hacked. Working on it. Please don’t retweet any misinformation,” he said.

NBC news released an official statement at 6:35 pm ET to its 129,170 followers saying, “The NBC News twitter account was hacked late this afternoon and as a result, false reports of a plane attack on ground zero were sent to @NBCNews followers. We are working with Twitter to correct the situation and sincerely apologize for the scare that could have been caused by such a reckless and irresponsible act.”

Not long after, NBC gained control over the situation. “Our account is secure and under control. Apologize for the scare. We value your trust.” Twitter immediately suspended NBC’s account eight minutes after the hack notification.

In line with the commemoration of the 9/11 attack’s 10th year anniversary, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum rolled out an update of its iPhone memorial app called ‘Explore 9/11’. It now offers audio and visual presentation of the tragedy. Also, ‘7 Days in September’ filmmaker Steve Rosenbaum created an app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices called ‘110 Stories,’ allowing users to see the Twin Towers where it used to stand proud and tall as they point their devices towards its location.

On the other hand, Twitter, as a social media, is basking in the glory of a new milestone with 100 million global active users and 230 million tweets a day. Its revenue also folded to $1.6 billion in just half a year’s time, proving that there’s actual money in advertising and they are earning from it. Twitter also made clear that it is not a direct competition of traditional media. Though it has established itself as a powerful tool for news to spread like wildfire all over the dotcom, its broadcasting cannot be considered as accurate as the slower-paced customary media counterpart. Twitter only serves an amplifier.

In other hacker talks, LulzSec breached the US Senate Website and Bethesda Softworks 3 months ago. Hactivist collective Anonymous also had a scuffle with Texas law enforcers because of the latter’s high-profile manhunt of the hactivist collective’s members involved in various DDoS attack and LulzSec’s 50 days of internet mayhem. Among the collective’s other mischief worth mentioning is the release of a 10GB data from 70 US law enforcement agencies compromising “hundreds of private emails spools, password information, address, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, snitch information, training files, and more,” as pointed out by Identity Finder.


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