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BuzzFeed Hacked By OurMine As Group Accuses Site of Publishing 'Fake News' (thedrum.com)
BuzzFeed has become the latest website to be compromised by hackers. A number of stories on the website have been vandalized by hackers in what appears a retaliation for a story that claimed to expose a member of their group. The hacker group, which calls itself OurMine, changed titles of several BuzzFeed posts to note that the website has been hacked. There's another note left by hackers which says "share fake news about us again." From a report: Several stories on BuzzFeed.com have been affected, with The Drum receiving the below message on a link that was meant to contain a news feature. The hackers warned BuzzFeed that it has the media owner's "database," adding: "Next Time it will be public. Don't fuck with OurMine again." The group has claimed responsibility for several high-profile hacks over the past 12 months including security breaches which saw them access the accounts of Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, Google boss Sundar Pichai and former Twitter head Dick Costolo. Some Twitter users were reporting that hacking outfit's message had appeared on "dozens" of articles on BuzzFeed, but the site appears to have dealt with the cyber attack quite quickly.
Though I'm ashamed to say I actively chose to visit BuzzFeed just to check.
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I'm curious why BuzzFeed focused on that guy. There are literally tens of OurMine doxes just on PasteBin, all with different names. The evidence from their report is contextual at best.
Right now, the front page of Buzzfeed includes such insightful articles as "23 Study Superstitions That Helped People Pass Exams", "We Know Your Fave 'Mean Girls' Character Based On Your Fave Cheese" and "All 47 Vice Presidents, Ranked by Hotness".
The only shocking thing here is that the hackers seem to think that people see Buzzfeed as a source of real news.
What the fuck is Buzzfeed? I have never even heard of it until now.
It's kind of like "The Onion" only they don't realize their news is all fake.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
So, someone shitposted on buzzfeed and someone else actually noticed?
Get out.
Solving Unix problems since 1989...
You mean like this piece by Ben Goldacre about how scientists aren't sharing data https://www.buzzfeed.com/bengoldacre/deworming-trials? Or this article encouraging people to take steps to avoid making more antibiotic resistant bacteria https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/stop-asking-your-doctor-for-antibiotics? Buzzfeed has a lot of clickbait, but some very good articles on occasion, and they don't have "fake" news. You can argue that a lot of it is obnoxious listicles, but that's a very different claim.
When I first heard Buzzfeed had been hacked, I was all:
[Gif showing someone turning around and their mouth hanging open]
I mean, first of all, how would someone hack such a major website?
[Gif showing clip of Trinity hacking into the power plant using that OpenSSH bug]
And why? I had all kinds of theories!
[Gif of Scrooge McDuck bathing in gold coins, throwing them up in the air]
But then I heard the full story, apparently the hackers thought Buzzfeed was a serious news site!
[Gif showing someone's mouth open while they shake their heads]
I mean, like a newspaper!
[Gif showing newspapers rolling off a press]
with real news!
[Gif of man with Trilby and a notepad, standing next to another one with a giant camera, who then takes a picture causing the screen to turn white]
Only online!
[Gif of someone's finger browsing through the Uber app]
With pictures!
[Picture of an art gallery]
And I was like: "What a bunch of idiots!"
[Gif of someone flipping through tabs on their web browser, showing Twitter, Buzzfeed, and Slashdot]
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
At the very least it can be accused of frequently presenting opinion as fact and deals mainly in fluff rather than substantial news.
It's essentially the news site for 12 year old girls.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
The hackers found one weird trick that webmasters don't want them to know!
The only shocking thing here is that the hackers seem to think that people see Buzzfeed as a source of real news.
That's because it *is* treated as real news, it's also considered a reliable source on sites like Wikipedia. While political sites with original reporting like Washington Examiner aren't considered reliable.
Om, nomnomnom...
>> Right now, the front page of Buzzfeed includes such insightful articles as "23 Study Superstitions That Helped People Pass Exams",
Have you been to Yahoo News lately? Or the Chicago Sun Times?
Today, it seems almost all news sites are headed down the pop-culture/listicle/X-weird-tricks toilet.
Buzzfeed's business model isn't based around posting good content Nor it it based around posting bad content. It's about maximizing click-throughs, which means providing good content to people like you (i.e., smart people) and garbage content for all the idiots (i.e., people not like you) out there on the Internet.
But of course the cultural value of Buzzfeed is beside the point. Nobody in a free society gets to edit things other people say about them.
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TechDirt has been posting Fake News for years...er "tech rumors and dirt". Mudslinging with a tech focus is their brand.
Buzzfeed is more of a stream of whispers sourced by tweets, posts, texts and email. Both site are awful sources of "news", since that's not what they do.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Dead on. Fuck BuzzFeed.
So kinda like a more interesting version of CNN and Fox?