Those of us addicted to our social media were in for a suspenseful adventure Friday, thanks to the New York Post and United Press International. Apparently, according to them: “World War III declared by the Pope! China and the United States engaged in a serious military battle!”
Fortunately, this was just another simple case of Twitter accounts being hacked and used for nefarious purposes. Ironically, both the NYP’s and UPI’s Twitter accounts had been hacked at about 1pm Friday, just as Obama and Cameron were addressing the media on cyber security and the need to improve online defenses.
While the two leaders answered questions, the news organizations’ Twitter feeds were filled with reports of China condemning President Obama’s “pivot to Asia,” before the firing on and damaging of the USS George Washington, an American aircraft carrier based in the Pacific. The feeds also stated that the US was involved in “active combat” against China in the South China Sea.
“US Joint Chief of staff: USS George Washington damaged, US navy now engaged in active combat against Chinese vessels in South China sea,” reads one tweet.
Another reads, “JUST IN: Xi Jinping: Obama ‘condemned’ for Asia pivot, ‘has forced China to protect its interests through military means.’”
Meanwhile, UPI tweeted that Pope Francis declared, “World War III has begun.”
And one tweet from the NY Post’s business section stated that, “the Federal Reserve wants negative interest rates to avoid market recession due to low oil prices.”
Both the NYP and UPI deleted the tweets soon after they were posted, later acknowledging that they had been hacked.
The Twitter posts did not cause any reaction in the financial markets. However, the Navy did put out a statement to verify that the USS George Washington had not been attacked.
“Give the hackers this much credit, the George Washington is our permanent Pacific based carrier,” tweeted spokesman for House Armed Services committee, John Noonan, according to CNN. “They at least did their homework.”
In a case that is still under investigation earlier this week, US Central Command had had its Twitter and YouTube accounts hacked with statements supporting the Islamic State being published. This highlights just how difficult it is for media outlets to secure themselves against cyber warfare.
The Syrian Electronic Army apparently took control of AP’s Twitter feed in April 2013, posting that an explosion had occurred in the White House leaving Obama injured.
Obama had highlighted a number of possible means of combating cyber warfare, including possible legislation that would increase the amount of data and information that would be shared between the government and companies in the private sector, such as Google and Yahoo.
Ah so another “reason” to lock down the only free place in the world, huh? Seems to be a lot of that lately.
Phew ! That claim of a World War 3 almost got me, for a second there. But, I do highly doubt that Pope Francis would ever claim a war . from what I’ve heard feom my old church program, the Pope helps people from different going through struggles as much as participating among various religions, never had I heard that he’s a bad guy nor claim anything violent like WW3 to happen, it was only a fragment of a memory that I have heard about Pope Francis, when I was a pre-teen at the time . But I knew that Pope must be a nice person, who helps people out with many different kinds problems as much as religion is now concerned.
PTB’S?