TEMPO.CO, Washington - Syrian hackers managed to break into the twitter account of the Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday local time. The hackers tweeted false news that there were two explosions in the White House, leading a brief crash in the US stock markets.
One of the tweets sent by the Syrian Electronic Army--supporters of President Bashar al-Assad--said that President Barack Obama was injured in the attack.
Soon after the hack, twitter took down the AP account temporarily. AP spokesman Paul Colford told Reuters that the tweets about the two explosions and Obama's injury were false and not sent by AP.
However, the tweet was retweeted 1,181 times before it was removed. AP's twitter account has 1.9 million followers around the globe.
The tweet caused the stock prices of S&P and Dow Jones to plummet for about three minutes before finally returning to its original value. The S&P 500 index fell by one percent, causing a loss US$136.5 billion, before finally returning to normal.
White House spokesman Jay Carney immediately gave a statement to reporters that Obama is in fine condition. "I just met with him," he said.
The incident is one of a series of web attacks on news agency. Last week, the social media account of TV shows '60 Minutes' and '48 Hours', which is managed by CBS News, were also hacked.
Spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Jenny Shearer, said the FBI has been investigating the hack. Daniel Gallaghe, Commissioner of the Share Trading Commission (SEC), said the SEC is also investigating the impact of the tweets on capital markets.
USA TODAY | REUTERS | DAILY MAIL | SITA PLANASARI AQUADINI
