TEMPO.CO, Washington – A Twitter account belonged to Associated Press (AP) was hacked on Tuesday April 23. The result was a false tweet about an explosion at the White House that injured President Barack Obama.
Twitter immediately blocked the account after the tweet was posted. Julie Pace, the AP Chief Correspondent in White House said that the account was hacked. Jay Carney, Obama’s press secretary also confirmed that the President was not injured.
As a follow up, AP editors stated that "@AP twitter account was hacked. The tweet about the White House attack was a hoax. We will provide further information as soon as possible.''
The false tweet took its toll at the stock market. Dow Jones industrial average dropped by 130 points after the tweet, though it soon recovered.
AP mentioned that according to the tweet metadata, the hacker posted the tweet directly from the web.
In the past few days, AP found out that their computers were infected by a malware; which explains how the hacker can obtain access to passwords.
Paul Colford, AP spokesperson, said that this hack was preceded by a phishing attack on AP e-mail network. ''The attack was blocked, and there is no evidence that AP system was in danger,” he added.
Boston Globe | Abdul Manan
