Hackers Bypass Twitter Security; Attack Burger King

Fast food restaurant Burger King has had its Twitter account hacked and defaced by hacktivist group LulzSec. The organization, which has claimed responsibility for a number of high-profile hacks in the past few years, posted false information to the Burger King Twitter page.

According to reports, around noon Eastern Time on Monday, February 18, 2013, the @BurgerKing account name was changed to "McDonalds," while the familiar McDonald's logo was splashed across the screen.

In addition, LulzSec added false information indicating that Burger King had been purchased by its primary fast food rival.

Hackers Claim Burger King Sold to McDonald's

That posted message read: "BURGER KING@USA official Twitter account. Just got sold to McDonalds because the whopper flopped =[ FREEDOM FAILURE."

Later, the hackers used the account to tweet, "If I catch you at a wendys, we're fightin!" (Source: cnet.com)

The hackers then made a number of controversial posts on the Burger King Twitter account. According to USA Today, some of those tweets included "obscenities or racial epithets." (Source: usatoday.com)

The tweets included text, photos, and videos, most of which poked fun at Burger King and its employees. In total, the hackers posted just over fifty tweets.

It took about half an hour before those responsible for the Burger King Twitter account could disable it and stop the posts from being made.

However, the images posted by the hackers on Burger King's Twitter account, which initially had roughly 85,000 followers, can still be accessed.

Number of Twitter Hacks Piling Up

Late reports suggest that within 60 minutes of the hack going public the Burger King Twitter account's number of followers jumped to roughly 110,000.

This is just the latest in a string of Twitter account hacks. In recent months both the New York Yankees' and Major League Baseball's Twitter accounts were attacked. (Source: slashgear.com)

It remains unclear if these attacks or the Burger King hack are the result of a recent security breach that resulted in more than 250,000 Twitter account passwords being lost.