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NBC Twitter account hacked with details of “Ground Zero attack”

THE TWITTER ACCOUNT of NBC News was hacked last night by a group of ‘script kiddies’ who posted news of an apparent terrorist attack on New York – just two days before the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The perpetrators – revealing themselves through the @s_kiddies account, which was suspended shortly afterward – proclaimed to have been affiliated with the Anonymous hacktivist movement.

The @NBCNews account was also briefly suspended while NBC regained control of it, and to stop the ‘news’ being retweeted by other users.

NBC later issued a statement apologising for the breach and condemning the attack, while the account – when it was reactivated some time later – apologised for the scare and said it valued the trust of its readers.

It has not yet been ascertained whether the ‘Script Kiddies’ group is the same one which hijacked the @FoxNewsPolitics account on July 4th to send messages ‘reporting’ the death of President Barack Obama.

NBC Twitter account hacked with details of “Ground Zero attack”
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  • @NBCNews Twitter account hacked (1)

    The first tweet... (Screen grabs via our colleagues at Business Insider)
  • @NBCNews Twitter account hacked (2)

    ...didn't manage to convince many people.
  • @NBCNews Twitter account hacked (3)

    The hacking became more evident when the account posts more salient details - which can be clearly cross-checked as inaccurate.
  • @NBCNews Twitter account hacked (4)

    Though the account insists its tweets are accurate, the case is not helped by the replacement of the avatar with a 'Troll face'.
  • @NBCNews Twitter account hacked (5)

    An admission of guilt follows...
  • @NBCNews Twitter account hacked (6)

    ...while Ryan Osborn, NBC News's director of social media, puts the word out that the account should not be trusted.
  • @NBCNews Twitter account hacked (7)

    The @S_Kiddies account - which has already been deleted - read: "Anonymous supporters... hackers... exploiting simplistic methods with hilarious results... occasionally doing it for teh lulz..."

Read: Fox News’ hacked Twitter account kills Obama >

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