Reuters Admits Twitter Account Hacked

Reuters has admitted that its Twitter feed was hacked over the weekend and false news tweets were posted.

The admission came in a statement on the news service on Monday morning. Reuters said one of its Twitter accounts was hacked on Sunday and that up to 22 false tweets posted, mainly related to the civil war in Syria.

Twitter Hack

The tweets reportedly carried false information about rebel losses in their battle against government forces, leading to speculation that pro-Assad hackers were behind the attack. The false messages also pointed to fake White House admissions of supporting al-Qaeda.

“Obama takes Al Qaeda off list of terrorist organisation, says Al Qaeda no longer a threat to US interests,” the compromised Reuters account reportedly tweeted on Sunday.

“Earlier today @ReutersTech was hacked and changed to @ReutersME,” said a spokesperson for Reuters. “The account has been suspended and is currently under investigation.”

A screenshot of the hacked Twitter feed can be found here, thanks to @worldwidenieuws.

Second attack

But that was not the only attack to hit the news service in the last 72 hours, after Reuters News also disclosed on Friday that its blogging platform on its website had been compromised. It said “a false posting purporting to carry an interview with a Syrian rebel leader was illegally posted on a Reuters’ journalist’s blog.”

Numerous notable Twitter accounts have been hacked before. Last week, tech website Gizmodo had its Twitter account hacked. In July last year the UK division of online payment service PayPal also suffered a Twitter hack, after a disaffected customer hacked its Twitter feed and posted a stream of insults.

Fox News also suffered embarrassment when its Twitter feed announced the assassination of President Obama when a prankster took control of the account.

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