FBI investigating White House AP Twitter hoax

THE FBI are investigating yesterday’s hack of the Associated Press Twitter account, which resulted in false tweets being sent claiming that the White House had been attacked.
The White House in Washington D.C. Picture: GettyThe White House in Washington D.C. Picture: Getty
The White House in Washington D.C. Picture: Getty

The message, posted early evening UK time, said that there had been two explosions at the White House and President Barack Obama was injured, which caused the finance markets to drop sharply as a result.

It came after hackers made repeated attempts to steal the passwords of AP journalists, with the cyber-attack the latest in a string targeting international media organisations.

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The tweet put out by hackers briefly resulted in the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling sharply. The Dow fell about 143 points, from 14,697 to 14,554, after the fake Twitter posting, but quickly recovered.

White House spokesman Jay Carney confirmed that the incident was a hoax.

AP said it had suspended all of its Twitter accounts.

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