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BP pwned by Twitter pranksters

Another unfortunate leak

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 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: "BP is trying to remake the Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Oil Ocean level.Just throw some robots and a blue hedgehog in. #bpcares" ®

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