Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/28/bp_twitter_pwn/
BP pwned by Twitter pranksters
Another unfortunate leak
Posted in Security, 28th May 2010 12:18 GMT
Watch Now : Virtual Machine Movement with Hyper-V
Oil giant BP suffered further embarrassment on Thursday after its official Twitter account was hacked.
Pranksters purloined the @BP_America Twitter account to write "Terry is now in charge of operation Top Kill, work will recommence after we find a XXL wetsuit. #bpcares #oilspill"
The message, which was deleted around 30 minutes after it was posted, was contained an in-joke referring to the fake Twitter account @BPGlobalPR. The wag updating this account regularly references a character called Terry in its satirical tweets.
Security firm Sophos speculates [1] that poor password security might be behind the hack on the official Twitter account. Alternatively the password might have been captured via a phishing scam.
In any case the hack could hardly have happened at a worse time for BP, which is under fierce public criticism over the continuing oil spill from a platform it owns in the Gulf of Mexico.
Criticism and satirical jibes at BP are all over the blogshere. Comments include: "BP is trying to shut down @BPGlobalPR instead of shutting down the oil leak" and our personal favourite [2]: "BP is trying to remake the Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Oil Ocean level.Just throw some robots and a blue hedgehog in. #bpcares" ®