Newsweek tweeted about being hacked (Credit: Twitter)
Newsweek lost control of its Twitter account for 14 minutes this morning because the account was hacked, the magazine confirmed in a news story.
The hackers posted numerous fake tweets and changed Newsweek‘s profile picture and banner photo. The photos were changed to show a masked person with the words “Je suIS IS,” with IS and IS in red to read ISIS. See below, via New York Daily News:
Fake Newsweek tweets were “offensive messages threatening Michelle Obama and praising ‘cyber jihad.'”
Newsweek has since deleted the posts made by hackers and tweeted that it has its account back
We’re back on Twitter after being hacked: http://t.co/Ib1pfgN3PC
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) February 10, 2015
Politico published a screenshot of some of the tweets, including one directed to First Lady Michelle Obama that said “We’re watching you, you girls and your husband.”
Other tweets were “images of leaked documents from the DCITA, or the Defense Cyber Investigations Training Academy,” according to Tech Crunch.
Another image tweeted by the hackers read: “While the US and its satellites are killing our brothers in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, we are destroying your national cybersecurity system from inside.”
Managing editor Kira Bindrim said in a statement posted by Newsweek: “We apologize to our readers for anything offensive that might have been sent from our account during that period, and are working to strengthen our newsroom security measures going forward.”
The Cyber Caliphate claimed credit for the hack. According to Tech Crunch, they are “a relatively unknown hacker group that claims to have a relationship to ISIS.”
Newsweek noted that the International Business Times‘ website was also hacked today. IB Times and Newsweek “share a parent company, IBT Media,” according to Newsweek.
The IB Times pointed iMediaEthics to its news story on the hack.
According to the IB Times, the hackers posted a fake story “under the byline of one of IBTimes’ reporters.”
“A photo was also posted to the IBTimes website showing a face cloaked in a black and white scarf, with the black ISIS flag. It included the words “Je SuIS IS,” a wordplay in French in reference to the “Je Suis Charlie” slogan widely used to condemn the attack at the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris last month that killed 12 people,” the IB Times reported.
UPDATE: 2/10/2015 4:36 PM EST Added response from IB Times.
