Fox Twitter account hacked, claims Obama shot in Iowa

IDG News Service - The Twitter account for Fox News was apparently hacked, with six tweets falsely reporting early Monday morning that U.S. President Barack Obama had been shot twice in an Iowa restaurant while campaigning.

The tweets were posted between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Eastern Time by the "foxnewspolitics" account. The account has a badge with a checkmark that means it has been verified by Twitter for authenticity.

National media outlets in the U.S., including Fox News itself, carried no such reports. Fox News ran a story on its website acknowledging the hack, saying it "regrets any distress the false tweets may have created." The false tweets came on a major U.S. holiday, Independence Day.

The first tweet about the assassination -- addressed directly to Obama's real account -- said "@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead."

Subsequent tweets said that Obama had been shot twice in the lower pelvic area and the neck and that he later died from his wounds, with the shooter unknown.

Earlier on Monday morning, the Huffington Post reported that the Fox News Politics Twitter feed had been hacked. A screenshot posted by the Huffington Post, showed the Fox News Politics feed carrying the subtitle: "H4CK3D BY TH3 5CR1PT K1DD3S." The channel's logo had been replaced with the capital letters SK, presumably also a reference to script kiddies, a term applied to youths who hack computers using simple, automated tools or scripts developed by others.

The screenshot also captured two other messages, subsequently deleted, on the Fox News Politics feed, one taking credit for the hack and another directed at Anonymous, the hacking collective that has led a highly successful hacking campaign. That tweet also referred to "antisec," short for "Anti-Security," an ongoing hacking operation conducted by Anonymous that has antagonized companies and governments by defacing websites and, in some cases, stealing sensitive data.

The first in the series of strange tweets still visible on the account said that the account owners had regained full access to e-mail and the Twitter feed, in an attempt to allay suspicion about the earlier, now deleted, messages.

Twitter typically moves quickly to delete tweets that come from hacked accounts and has overall stepped up its security. But like many web-based services, Twitter uses logins and passwords to allow access to accounts, which hackers have proved adept at stealing through social engineering techniques and malware on computer such as keyloggers.

Officials at Twitter, which is based in San Francisco, California, could not be immediately reached.

Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2010 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Internet Famous: 6 Twitter Tips From the Pros

PC World - Twitter is the perfect social network for today's ADHD world--messages are short, sweet, and constantly pouring in. But how do you make yourself known when your 140-character tweets of genius are constantly supplanted by other people's inane thoughts? Here are some tips on how to gain legions of Twitter followers.

Find Your Niche

The Internet is a big place, and you're just one person. That doesn't mean you can't change the world (or whatever), but it does mean that you won't enjoy mass appeal from the get-go. So find your niche and stick with it.

"The best thing about the Internet, and Twitter, is that if you are truly passionate about something--anything--there's a place for it," says travel writer Stefanie Michaels (@adventuregirl).

Michaels was already an established travel journalist before she joined Twitter in March 2009--but even so, she attributes much of her success to finding the right niche at the right time.

"When I started tweeting, I was basically the only person out there tweeting travel deals," she says in a phone conversation, "I was already a well-known travel editor at two now-defunct travel magazines, so I basically went from being unemployed to walking red carpets. It's pretty surreal."

Michaels has about 1.5 million followers on Twitter.

Tweet Often

Twitter users who tweet often are more likely to keep their audience and followers engaged. So you should try to tweet as much as you can, without forcing it.

"When I tweet, I have to feel it. It must be 'real,'" says Shannon Seek (@shannonseek), "I don't preplan tweets or have a protocol of any kind. It is an intuitive experience."

Still, Seek admits that the more frequently she tweets, the more followers she gets. "When I amassed 30,000 followers in one month, I was tweeting like 180 times a day," Seek says in an email message, "I was recovering from surgery at the time, and it was a way to stay connected."

Seek currently has about 49,000 Twitter followers.

Interact With Others

Twitter shouldn't be an infinite auditorium where you stand at the lectern and release your existential (or not-so-existential) thoughts to the Internet. Rather, it should be a place where you connect with other people--because, after all, every follower is a real person. Except for the ones who are bots.

If you want more followers, try to interact with people as much as you reasonably can. Interactions show people that you're listening, and observing your interactions with people over Twitter will help convince others that you're worth following.

According to Kinsey Schofield (@KinseySchofield), social media strategist and part time entertainment reporter, it's a good idea to create a social media presence by starting with people you actually know in real life. This generates fun exchanges online that other people like to see and read.

Reprinted with permission from PCWorld.com. Story copyright 2010 PC World Communications. All rights reserved.

Fox Twitter account hacked, claims Obama shot in Iowa

IDG News Service - The Twitter account for Fox News was apparently hacked, with six tweets falsely reporting early Monday morning that U.S. President Barack Obama had been shot twice in an Iowa restaurant while campaigning.

The tweets were posted between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Eastern Time by the "foxnewspolitics" account. The account has a badge with a checkmark that means it has been verified by Twitter for authenticity.

National media outlets in the U.S., including Fox News itself, carried no such reports. Fox News ran a story on its website acknowledging the hack, saying it "regrets any distress the false tweets may have created." The false tweets came on a major U.S. holiday, Independence Day.

The first tweet about the assassination -- addressed directly to Obama's real account -- said "@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead."

Subsequent tweets said that Obama had been shot twice in the lower pelvic area and the neck and that he later died from his wounds, with the shooter unknown.

Earlier on Monday morning, the Huffington Post reported that the Fox News Politics Twitter feed had been hacked. A screenshot posted by the Huffington Post, showed the Fox News Politics feed carrying the subtitle: "H4CK3D BY TH3 5CR1PT K1DD3S." The channel's logo had been replaced with the capital letters SK, presumably also a reference to script kiddies, a term applied to youths who hack computers using simple, automated tools or scripts developed by others.

The screenshot also captured two other messages, subsequently deleted, on the Fox News Politics feed, one taking credit for the hack and another directed at Anonymous, the hacking collective that has led a highly successful hacking campaign. That tweet also referred to "antisec," short for "Anti-Security," an ongoing hacking operation conducted by Anonymous that has antagonized companies and governments by defacing websites and, in some cases, stealing sensitive data.

The first in the series of strange tweets still visible on the account said that the account owners had regained full access to e-mail and the Twitter feed, in an attempt to allay suspicion about the earlier, now deleted, messages.

Twitter typically moves quickly to delete tweets that come from hacked accounts and has overall stepped up its security. But like many web-based services, Twitter uses logins and passwords to allow access to accounts, which hackers have proved adept at stealing through social engineering techniques and malware on computer such as keyloggers.

Officials at Twitter, which is based in San Francisco, California, could not be immediately reached.

Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2010 International Data Group. All rights reserved.