Twitter Hackers Report Obama Dead

Fox News has reported that one of its Twitter accounts was recently breached by hackers. The hacked account was then used to post fake reports that President Barack Obama had been assassinated in Iowa while visiting a local restaurant. (Source: wsj.com)

Fake Tweet Stays Live for 9 Hours

It's not known for sure who was behind the attack, though there are a number of suspects. Whoever it was, they made fixing the problem a hassle by changing account passwords, preventing Fox News from easily removing the post and offering an explanation.

In total, the falsified tweet stayed live for about nine hours.

Eventually, Fox fixed the feed and offered an explanation for the hack, which reached about 37,500 followers.

US Secret Service Called in to Investigate

Fox now says that it's working with Twitter to investigate the hack.

"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 Fox News Digital representative, Jeff Misenti.

Also looking into the matter is the Secret Service, which told the media that it was currently conducting an "appropriate follow-up" to the hack.

Brute-Force Attack Likely Used

Security experts are reminding everyone that it's just as possible that someone hacked Fox News' site, found Twitter account information, and then used that to access the social networking site.

Twitter was likely not the target of the hack, and they believe this to be the case. "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 in a statement. (Source: cnet.com)