Twitter hoax posts false Britney Spears death report
Sony Music says Twitter account was compromised
Sony is well aware of the damage a hacked account can cause, especially when it impacts an entire service such as the PlayStation Network. The latest Sony hack is on a much smaller scale, though, with the only real consequence being lots of upset Britney Spears fans.
According to Billboard, Sony Music Entertainment's @SonyMusicGlobal Twitter account got hacked, and the hacker decided to have some fun by informing the account's 614K followers that Britney Spears was dead.
The tweet read, "RIP @britneyspears #RIPBritney 1981-2016." It was followed with another tweet stating, "britney spears is dead by accident! we will tell you more soon #RIPBritney." To compound the issue, Bob Dylan's account was also hacked and the tweet "Rest in peace @britneyspears" posted.
At 35, Britney Spears dying would obviously cause shock and more than a few Google searches to find out exactly what happened. Sony Music reacted quickly, removing the fake tweets and apologizing "to Britney Spears and her fans for any confusion."
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Shane Allen of Eye Opener TV managed to capture the tweets before they were removed.
Responsibility for the hack was claimed by the OurMine hacking group, which also recently managed to take control of the Netflix Twitter account, as well as those of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and even Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey.
Securing corporate Twitter accounts seems to be a task nobody wants to understand or undertake properly, not even Twitter's own chief. Until they do, or Twitter introduces another layer of security, OurMine looks likely to continue taking over high-profile Twitter targets and making it very clear there's a security issue to be resolved.
This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
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