The Onion's Suspected Twitter Hack Reveals The Syrian Electronic Army's Morbid Humor

[TechCrunch]

The Syrian Electronic Army has apparently hacked The Onion's twitter account, exposing the groups seriously morbid sense of "humor". "UN retracts report of Syrian chemical weapon use: "Lab tests confirm it is Jihadi body odor", went one tweet.

We've seen fake hacks before, and given that The Onion is a satirical news site, it was hard to know whether this "hack" was just another tasteless ploy for attention. As of about 45 minutes ago (11:15 PT), all of the suspected tweets have been erased. So, either it was a legit hack or The Onion editorial board had a change of heart.

The Syrian Electronic Army has been on a cyberwarfare tear, including a false tweet about an explosion at the White House from the AP twitter account, which caused a brief dip in the stock market.

Twitter is reportedly implementing a more secure two-step verification to make it harder for cybercriminals to infiltrate accounts. Clearly, it can't come fast enough.

We've included a screenshot of the tweets below.



Via: TechCrunch