Hackers put big — and false — news on Fox Twitter account

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Hackers put big — and false — news on Fox Twitter account

While some marked Independence Day with hot dogs and fireworks, anonymous

hackers spent Monday morning breaking into a Fox News Twitter account and

posting fake reports of a presidential assassination.

The prank tweets on the @foxnewspolitics account began just after 2 a.m., and —

like any proper news account — kept updating with breathless posts on President

Obama's supposed condition.

The tweets, six in total, included gory (and entirely bogus) details: two shots

at an Iowa restaurant, hitting the president in the pelvis and neck, etc.

Within hours, news of the fake assassination spurred a wave of re-tweets, jokes

and comments mocking Fox online, fueled in part by idle Blackberrys during the

holiday and, given the cruel nature of some tweets, apparently a measure of glee

at the embarrassment of a news organization sometimes perceived as opposing

Obama.

The Secret Service said it is launching an investigation, given the graphic and

serious contents of the prank tweets. " We are investigating and will be

conducting the appropriate follow-up, " said spokesman Ogilvie.

Fox News apparently struggled for a few hours to regain control of its Twitter

account. In the afternoon, it managed to remove the prank tweets and issued a

statement on its Web site saying it " regrets any distress the false tweets may

have created. "

Jeff Misenti, a company vice president and the general manager of Fox News

Digital, also said in a statement that Fox News is requesting an investigation

by Twitter.

In the @foxnewspolitics Twitter feed, an online outfit called the Script Kiddies

initially took responsibility for the attack but then apparently deleted online

information about itself, according to a student news Web site called Think at

New York's Stony Brook University.

Adam Peck, a writer for Think, relayed instant messages he exchanged with a

person claiming to represent Script Kiddies in the wee hours of the morning

right after the hack. One message said, " Fox News was selected because we

figured their security would be just as much of a joke as their reporting. "