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CBS Twitter Feed Compromised 32

The BBC reports that two Twitter accounts belonging to CBS news have been suspended after they were compromised on Saturday afternoon. From the article: "Fake messages appearing on the @60Minutes account criticised US support for 'terrorist' rebels in Syria and others accused Barack Obama of trying to 'take away your guns.' A group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army claimed to have been responsible for hijacking the accounts."
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CBS Twitter Feed Compromised

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  • by Trepidity ( 597 ) <delirium-slashdot@@@hackish...org> on Sunday April 21, 2013 @09:36AM (#43509073)

    If we take the messages at face value, it must be someone who is: 1) in favor of the Syrian state against the rebellion there; yet 2) a gun-rights advocate who opposes attempts to "take away your guns".

    I guess it's possible to argue both that widespread gun ownership is needed as a bulwark against tyranny, and yet that the Syrian government is not an example of a tyrannical government where it's justified to actually use those guns to rebel. But that's not a very common position.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by fatalwall ( 873645 )

      Its also possible to argue that the two posts are very related in regards to wanting to keep gun rights in our contry and not wanting the US spending resources to support other countries. Sounds like some one from a group like the tea party. The term terrorist for the Syrian rebellion is most likely intended to shame the US gov. As we all know one mans terrorist is another mans patriot. The choice of term patriot, rebel, terrorist, etc is a psychological game.

    • It's also possible that the poster of all of these messages is simply a troll trying to say as many inflammatory things as possible.
      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        It's also possible that the poster of all of these messages is simply a troll trying to say as many inflammatory things as possible.

        Most likely, considering the rest of the tweets:

        "The US government is hiding the real culprit of the Boston bombing"
        "The US government is sponsoring a coup in Venezuela and a terrorist war in Syria"
        "Your duty is to protect your nation from the parasites that have taken your government"
        "Obama wants to destroy the Syrian and American people. We must stop this beast"

        Looks more like trollbait than

        • by femtobyte ( 710429 ) on Sunday April 21, 2013 @10:41AM (#43509323)

          Looks more like trollbait than any one political ideaology.

          Have you seen the political ideologies this country generates? All too often, the reality transcends attempts at parody --- the lobbyist pundits brought in by the media as "serious" viewpoints are more sick and incoherent than the foulest internet troll.

        • Most likely, considering the rest of the tweets:

          "The US government is hiding the real culprit of the Boston bombing"
          "The US government is sponsoring a coup in Venezuela and a terrorist war in Syria"
          "Your duty is to protect your nation from the parasites that have taken your government"
          "Obama wants to destroy the Syrian and American people. We must stop this beast"

          Looks more like trollbait than any one political ideaology.

          Or it's the usual conspiracists' idea that nothing is rejected except it's the official line, even when propositions are mutually contradictory. The various Alex Jones online conspiracy buffets are good examples of this.

          They can hold any number of contradictory positions, leaving it not entirely possible that the Syrian Electric Army is real and currently elbow deep in celebratory bags of Cheetos and protracted virginity.

    • That was my first thought too.

    • What, are you here selling the war also? Have you ever looked to see who the 'rebels' are? In fact this submission is pure garbage to 'inflame the masses'.

      Meanwhile, the FCC says 'obscenities' for propaganda is cool [weei.com]. Golly gee! If only Janet had "Bomb Iran" tattooed on her titties...

      • Meanwhile, the FCC says 'obscenities' for propaganda is cool. Golly gee! If only Janet had "Bomb Iran" tattooed on her titties...

        If someone could get a woman, three dudes and a sharpie, with the right country names in the right places maybe they could get hardcore porn shown on TV.

    • "But that's not a very common position."

      It's not a consistent position, but it is a typical one.

    • Alternatively it's some bored 12 year old doing it for the lulz. Sorry, the 1337 hacktivist hit squads of Anonymous protesting against tyranny wherever it rears its ugly head.
  • by DrProton ( 79239 ) on Sunday April 21, 2013 @10:36AM (#43509297)

    for two-factor authentication on twitter.

    • by karnal ( 22275 )

      This is what I was thinking.

      If you are a large organization working with a twitter, facebook or other type of social media - there should be a larger form of authentication and verification in place. For instance, PKI, only allowing communication initiation from a specific network (I know, lame but it at least keeps honest people honest) and THEN passwords for "company" accounts. Compensation at that point could be used to secure this type of additional security, and I think it would be top on the company

    • Authentication would then require more data to be passed than the actual message.

  • Unless you have an official acknowledgement of responsibility via another (and more credible) channel, it could just be noise.

  • by jones_supa ( 887896 ) on Sunday April 21, 2013 @04:27PM (#43511471)

    What's going on? I keep hearing "Sorry for the spam, our Twitter account was hacked" from various companies all the time.

    Does the site itself have security vulnerabilities or are these just stolen or phished passwords?

    Twitter should start looking to provide some extra security features to avoid this kind of problems.

  • CBS Twitter Feed Compromised...

    ... and nothing of any real value was lost!!!

    Why is there any worry or concern over trolls getting access to a poorly password-protected account for a network that skews north of age 70 in its demographics and that skews south of 70 decibels in its television news shouting levels? Was this article submitted by the so-called "hackers" themselves?
    .
    At least Timothy's not drunk or high anymore as he was in the "What do you get mugged in Central London and the local police a [slashdot.org]

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