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Hacker Sends Out Fake Tsunami Warning On Twitter

Posted by samzenpus on from the false-wave dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A Twitter account belonging to an official adviser of the Indonesian president has been broken into by a hacker who posted a warning that a tsunami was heading for Jakarta. Andi Arief is Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's disaster management adviser and a frequent user of Twitter. But when he lost control of his account, a tsunami warning was sent out to Twitter users."

5 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Take with a grain of salt by mirix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Trusting twitter? Turn on the TV or radio. Perhaps check the meteorological service's website.

    --
    Sent from my PDP-11
    1. Re:Take with a grain of salt by Rakshasa+Taisab · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Better a live fool 100 times than a dead fool once.

      You never know how long you got after a tsunami warning unless they actually state it originated far enough away, as there's a few minutes delay before the warning reaches you.

      --
      - These characters were randomly selected.
  2. Hey! There's a fake tsunami coming! by ignavus · · Score: 4, Funny

    It is all a matter of operator precedence:

    fake (tsunami warning) versus (fake tsunami) warning

    --
    I am anarch of all I survey.
    1. Re:Hey! There's a fake tsunami coming! by md65536 · · Score: 4, Funny

      It is all a matter of operator precedence:

      fake (tsunami warning) versus (fake tsunami) warning

      "fake (tsunami warning)" is standard gramatical precedence or whatever.
      "(fake tsunami) warning" would be specified "fake-tsunami warning"

      Please mod me down, thanks. I can't believe I replied to this.

  3. Re:Asshat by tsj5j · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's sad that such an uninformative troll post is modded insightful.

    Nowhere in the source did they confirm that his account was compromised due to a weak password.
    The source speculates it to be so, but given Twitter's security record it may not be so.
    Perhaps his password was recovered with forgot password, or a vulnerability found.

    Furthermore, weak passwords aren't the only way passwords get compromised.
    More often than not, social engineering or a brute force of his publically available information is used.
    He may have fallen for a phishing attempt in which a layman is unable to differentiate, or used an infected PC.

    Most importantly, either technical inexperience or weak passwords doesn't justify impersonation or calling anyone an asshat.
    Slashdot must accept that people are skilled in different fields, and IT is just but one of them.
    There's this foolish mentality around here that everyone must be experienced and knowledgeable in IT, when slashdotters are themselves clueless in many other fields - for example, fashion or (.