Yesterday’s prank by a hacker group, ‘The Script Kiddies’, on hacking the Twitter account of broadcaster Fox News and publishing false news of President Barack Obama’s death, has invited the attention of the US Secret Service, according to a report by AP.
The Secret Service has said that it will investigate the Twitter updates claiming that President Obama had been assassinated on 4 July.
According to the report, Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie said that the agency "will conduct the appropriate follow up."
Yesterday, hackers falsely posted messages declaring that President Obama had been shot dead after breaching into the Twitter account of US news broadcaster Fox News.
The @foxnewspolitics tweet read, "BREAKING NEWS: @BarackObama assassinated, 2 gunshot wounds have proved too much."
It is believed that the hackers started posting messages on the Fox News Politics account around 07.00 BST on 4 July.
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One stated, "Just regained full access to our Twitter and email. Happy 4th."
The next one read, "@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead."
Fox News has called the tweets "malicious" and "false." The broadcaster has asked an explanation from Twitter as well.
Hackers, calling themselves as "The Script Kiddies" have claimed responsibility for the Fox News hack.
A representative of the hacker group told Think that they were like the popular hacker group Anonymous.
The representative said, "I would consider us to be close in relation to Anonymous, 2 of the members of our group were members of Anonymous. I was a member of Anonymous," adding "We hope to be working with them soon."
The hacker said, "We are looking to find information about corporations to assist with antisec. Fox News was selected because we figured their security would be just as much of a joke as their reporting."
