twitter hacking

Busy fall for Apple, Xbox, and Amazon

CNET Update is out of breath:

Apple fans will have to wait until the fall for new "amazing" products, or so promises CEO Tim Cook.

Samsung fans will also be doing some waiting. The Galaxy S4 was said to hit stores this weekend, but the smartphone is facing supply issues -- and that's causing T-Mobile and Sprint to push back launch dates and only sell online. But you may be able to find one on Saturday in stores at AT&T, and on Tuesday at U.S. Cellular. [Read CNET's review here.]

For shoppers that … Read more

Reuters hacked (again) with fake story of Saudi minister's death

Someone must have it out for Reuters. For the second time in two weeks, the blogging platform for the news source's Web site has been hacked into and false stories have been illicitly published.

Today's sham article reported that Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal had died, according to Reuters. The first bogus story, posted earlier this month, was about the rebel Free Syrian Army suffering setbacks in their battle against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"Reuters did not report the false story and the post was immediately deleted," Reuters News' director of … Read more

USA Today's Twitter account falls victim to hackers

The same group that hacked NBC News' Twitter account on September 9 and sent tweets about a bogus attack on Ground Zero apparently grabbed hold of USA Today's Twitter feed today and fired off a clutch of messages.

The taunting tweets from someone claiming to be The Script Kiddies asked if Twitter had the courage to suspend the group again and encouraged Twitter users to vote for the next account to be hacked.

"Fox News, Wal-mart, Unilevel, Pfizer, NBC and now USA Today. who's next? Vote now!" read one of the tweets.

As of this writing, it seemed USA Today had regained control of its feed.

"Again, @usatoday was hacked and as a result false tweets were sent. We worked with Twitter to correct. The account is back in our control," said one message. "We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion caused to our readers and thank you for reading @usatoday," read another.

There appeared to be no Twitter account for The Script Kiddies.… Read more

NBC News Twitter account hacked

Hackers compromised the NBC News Twitter account today and sent several fake tweets from the account about an attack on Ground Zero reminiscent of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

"Breaking News! Ground Zero has just been attacked. Flight 5736 has crashed into the site, suspected hijacking. More as the story develops," was the first tweet this afternoon. It was followed by two others, including one that started "This is not a joke."

The fourth tweet said "NBCNEWS hacked by The Script Kiddies."

An e-mailed NBC News statement said: "The NBC News twitter … Read more

Fox News reports Twitter hack to Secret Service

Fox News has alerted the U.S. Secret Service that the cable news show's Twitter feed was used today to publish false reports that President Obama had been killed.

The attack apparently was completed about 11 p.m. PT Sunday, when a tweet appeared that said, "Just regained full access to our Twitter and email. Happy 4th."

Shortly afterward came the first of several Obama-related tweets: "@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead."

The tweets were still live on the Twitter Web site … Read more

Ashton Kutcher suffers Twitter hack attack?

This could be an example of being punk'd. Or even meta-punk'd.

But strange tweets have begun to appear on Ashton Kutcher's Twitter feed during the TED conference. And he seems to have done nothing about them.

The first tweet read: ""Ashton, you've been Punk'd. This account is not secure. Dude, where's my SSL?"

SSL--so my fallback engineering encyclopedia, Steve, tells me--stands for Secure Sockets Layer, something that many of those in the know believe Facebook and Twitter should use as a standard.

However, the phantom tweeter doesn't appeared to have … Read more

'Sh*tMyDadSays' Twitter feed hacked

There is never enough time in the day for fun. And hackers do like to have their fair share.

However, I am concerned that perhaps they are sometimes being too hasty and too thoughtless in their frolics around the Web.

You see, the rather popular Sh*tMyDadSays Twitter feed, which offers the real sayings of a slightly jaded former nuclear medicine worker, has been hacked. I suppose that when you have almost 2 million followers you become prey to this sort of thing, so perhaps no one should really be all that surprised.

Security expert Sophos explained that a post … Read more

Google Docs coming to Android, iPad

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded: Napster debuts on iOS VLC player for iPad Beware of the Twitter Hack HP's tablet and printer device iPad editing in Google Docs

The 404 670: Where we mouse on over to OnMouseOver (podcast)

If you noticed strange black blocks covering text on the Twitter homepage, one of your friends likely fell victim to a new hack that exploits Twitter's Web interface. The exploit was discovered early this morning by security firm Sophos, which realized that if you put the JavaScript code "onmouseover" into a URL in a tweet, a user can make a pop-up window emerge just by hovering over the link.

"Mouseover" hacks aren't new, and CNET reporter Caroline McCarthy tells us they've been used within e-mails in the past, but the fire is out...for now. In the interim, we recommend you use third-party sources like TweetDeck--at least until Twitter beefs up its security.

We've been talking about "The Social Network" for a few weeks now, and although we're all still skeptical about a movie based on a Web site, we're willing to check it out, and we want you to join us! We're giving away 20 pairs of tickets for a sneak preview showing of "The Social Network" on Tuesday, September 28 at a theater in Manhattan, and all you have to do is 1. FOLLOW @THE404 and 2. TWEET OUT this message:

If you're near NYC, FOLLOW @the404 and RT this for a chance to win a pair of tix to see The Social Network on 9/28 the404.cnet.com

...and you're entered to win! Don't forget that the theater is in Manhattan, so be sure you can get to the showing on September 28 if you enter. Winners will be chosen at random on Friday, September 24, so start tweeting!

Speaking of get-togethers, we're in the midst of organizing a 404 meetup! Our target date is Thursday, October 7, and the tentative location is The Frying Pan bar off of Pier 66 here in NYC, so save the date and we'll send out an official Meetup RSVP soon!

Episode 670 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1289: Facebook's momentary lapse of evil (podcast)

The social network stands up to Googlezon's net neutrality proposal, and meanwhile plots Foursquare's demise. Also Farmville pulling up stakes at MSN, and your car's tire pressure sensors can be hacked by drive-bys. Everybody panic!