How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Twitterbot

An anonymous reader writes Have you ever wondered what it is like to have your online identity hijacked and replaced with a Russian-speaking Bruce Willis impostor? Here's a lesson in online impersonation from Passcode, The Christian Science Monitor's soon-to-launch section on security and privacy in the digital age. From the article: "Weeks prior, I changed my handle from @SaraSorcherNJ to the simpler @SaraSorcher when I left my job at National Journal covering national security to join The Christian Science Monitor to help lead our new section on, somewhat ironically considering the situation, security and privacy. Apparently within days of that change, someone - or a bot - had taken over my former work identity. My real account, @SaraSorcher, still existed. In my picture, I was still smiling and wearing a gray suit. The @SaraSorcherNJ account — Fake Me — sported a smirking, balding Willis in a track suit and v-neck white tee. I tweet about news and wonky security policy issues. Fake Russian-speaking Me enjoys 'watching Hannibal, eating apples and pondering the nature of existence.'"

Comments

Re:Ignorance and arrogance seem to go well togethe

[Rei]

CSM is actually a good paper, and I say this as an atheist. The only regular "religious" aspect is a single daily column, "A Christian Science Perspective" - you'll find less religion in the CSM than in lots of other US papers. The overwhelming majority of their reporting has nothing to do with religion. They've won 7 Pulitzers and are famous for avoiding sensationalism.