NBC News Twitter Hacked: Tweets Allege Terror Attack At Ground Zero

The Twitter account for NBC News was hacked Friday evening, and a series of alarmist tweets about a fake terrorist attack at Ground Zero were posted. The breach came just days before the tenth anniversary of Sept. 11th, at a time of heightened concern about the possibility of another attack.

The first message, posted at 5:49 p.m., read "Breaking News! Ground Zero has just been attacked. Flight 5736 has crashed into the site, suspected hijacking. more as the story develops."

A second tweet read "Flight 4782 is not responding, suspected hijacking. One plane just hit Ground Zero site at 5:47. #groundzeroattacked."

Then: "This is not a joke, Ground Zero has just been attacked. We're attempting to get reporters on the scene. #groundzeroattacked."

The response from NBC was quick. Less than ten minutes after the first fake tweet, Vivian Schiller, Chief Digital Officer for NBC News and MSNBC tweeted "Ignore tweets from @nbcnews till further notice. We've been hacked. Do not retweet."

Ryan Osborn, Director of Social Media at NBC News, urged others not to retweet anything from the NBC account. "The @NBCNews account has been hacked. Working on it. Please don't retweet any misinformation."

The group "The Script Kiddies" took responsibility for the hack.

NBC News has approximately 129,170 followers. As of 6:35 p.m. ET, it appears the NBC News Twitter account is suspended.

NBC News released this statement:

"The NBC News twitter account was hacked late this afternoon and as a result, false reports of a plane attack on ground zero were sent to @NBCNews followers. We are working with Twitter to correct the situation and sincerely apologize for the scare that could have been caused by such a reckless and irresponsible act."

Comments

[hotrimer]

12:18 PM on 09/11/2011

HERES A TWEET FOR YOU FOOLS WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies have found no evidence that al-Qaida has sneaked any terrorists into the country for a strike coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, senior officials said Saturday

[Diasamax]

02:54 PM on 09/10/2011

News organizations are supposed to have the appropriate security measures to keep things like this from happening. However, at that the same time, it was completely inappropriate and disrespectful to think this was a funny joke. There are people who survived world trade and pentagon being attacked and are still struggling to get their lives back together. People need to grow up! Not everything merits a joke, it merits maturity!

[elicourey]

11:13 AM on 09/10/2011

Is it still too soon for this to be funny?

[Obiwhine Kenobi]

11:06 AM on 09/10/2011

So this is where Schiller went after she got fired? Like Huckabee going to Fox, just the other side of the aisle.

Vivian, her ideology and agenda should fit in quite well.

[Jack L Rivers]

09:55 AM on 09/10/2011

the weakness of social media.

[ArturoYee]

08:55 AM on 09/10/2011

The security teams at Twitter and all news organizations should be embarrassed. Shame on Twitter! Twitter and news organizations need to team up and work out a solution. Waste of FBI resources when they do not implement a true solution.

Two news organizations hacked in a similar way - maybe they should try Root cause analysis - or there will be a third, fourth. ...

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44464766/ns/us_news-security/#.TmtZW3O-NvY

[WilhelmKein]

10:41 AM on 09/10/2011

What does security at Twitter have to do with anything? When the Fox twitter was hacked, I thought they determined that the associated email was compromised, which is how they got into the Twitter.

If this was done in a similar manner, then they seem to be getting into the twitter accounts by entering the correct login info. You can't fault twitter for that.

[ArturoYee]

03:06 PM on 09/10/2011

They are responsible for the software that can control where and how the accounts can be accessed. There are ways to to limit access - which is within Twitter's realm of influence.

If they want to - they can - the technology is there.

[rodterry1]

08:50 AM on 09/10/2011

NBC and MSMBC were hacked and I never even knew it till I read this. Note to hackers next time hack something worth while.

[hamrick4]

07:55 AM on 09/10/2011

What irresponsible idiots!!!! Why on earth would anyone want to hack into NBC accounts and try to cause total chaos for so many? If they know or find out if this group is responsible, I hope they charge them to the fullest extent of the law. There is no excuse for such behavior!!!

[Obiwhine Kenobi]

11:00 AM on 09/10/2011

Lay off the exclamation point key.

[optwinjvm]

07:29 AM on 09/10/2011

If NBC is your only news source, you deserved to be duped. Even HP gets it right "some" of the time. LOL

[banzaimaur]

06:42 AM on 09/10/2011

"Chief Digital Officer for NBC News and MSNBC tweeted "Ignore tweets from @nbcnews till further notice."

Great advice......hacked or not.

[fliingv]

03:26 AM on 09/10/2011

this is the danger of groups like Anonymous. this could cause mass panic that terrorists with weapons could make use of. Anonymous is just a terrorist group with a keyboard.

[Indicahoots]

10:48 AM on 09/10/2011

Read the article before posting, please. Anonymous was not responsible for this hack.

[OpenYourEyesPlease]

03:17 AM on 09/10/2011

10 TO 1 THIS IS FAKE AND IT WAS DONE TO SCARE PEOPLE AND ALSO GIVE ANOTHER EXCUSE TO ENACT DRACONIAN INTERNET LAWS.

[NancyY]

02:39 AM on 09/10/2011

I don't even DO "twitter". I just don't have the time.

[caliber44c]

02:13 AM on 09/10/2011

Prolly a bunch of 12 year old russian kids, the same who were applauded as heros by the soviet government when they hacked some guys bank account and stole over $12,000.oo.......

[RepublicansAreFail]

03:32 AM on 09/10/2011

Nobody cares.

[MA DAVID]

06:01 AM on 09/10/2011

No...lots of people care about corruption in the Obama family. Where'd uncle Omar go? Who let him off the hook? Who set it up? Obstruction of Justice is a nasty thing isn't it!

[hamrick4]

07:57 AM on 09/10/2011

What in the world are you rambling about? This has nothing to do with the topic at hand. Get with it or get off the computer and stop posting. It makes you seem ignorant!