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Sony Music Apologises To Britney Spears, Fans After Fake RIP Tweet Sent (abc.net.au)

Posted by msmash on from the accept-my-apology-pls dept.

Sony Music Entertainment has apologised to Britney Spears fans after its Twitter account was hacked and fake statements saying that the pop music icon had died were posted online. From a report: Sony Music, a unit of Sony Corp, said in a short statement that its social media account was "compromised" but that the situation "has been rectified." The company said it "apologises to Britney Spears and her fans for any confusion." Funnily enough, after Sony Music Entertainment Twitter account was hacked and started tweeting about the death of Spears, another hacker group called OurMine hacked Sony's account to note that Spears is not dead.

25 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. Seriously??? by EmeraldBot · · Score: 2

    First the sony PS Network hack, then the credit card leaks, and now this? Why is there security consistently so bad? Twitter's not even hard to secure, just use 2-factor authentication, something that'll defeat 90% of hack attempts. That they keep getting breached over and over again says something about their company culture towards investing in their customer's safety...

    --
    "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
    1. Re:Seriously??? by gweihir · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sony is doing IT Security cheaper than possible. As long as this does not have personal consequences, for the people that screwed up here (no, I do not mean the administrators that were not given budget and time, but the ones making the decisions), nothing will change.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    2. Re:Seriously??? by Solandri · · Score: 1

      2FA works great for an individual or couple. It doesn't work so well for a group-shared account. If a dozen employees have access to an account and one quits or is fired, you'd have to regenerate a new 2FA key and update it to the remaining 11 employees. It's the same reason Sony's passwords were stored in an unencrypted text file during the original PS Network hack (and the reason your company probably posts shared passwords on the refrigerator in the break room) - it becomes tedious to send updated passwords to all the employees who need access to that account.

      These online services (Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc) really need to come up with a better system for handling group-shared accounts. They need a master user who can create, assign, and revoke privileges to sub-users (pretty similar to how Google Apps for Domains works). Then the company's IT admin can own the master account. Employees who need to be able to send tweets as "Sony" would be given subaccounts, each with their own individual password and 2FA key. If one of these employees loses a device which has his password or 2FA token generator, IT can use the master account to reset only that employee's password and 2FA key. If one of those employees quits or is fired, IT just uses the master account to delete that employee's account. Everyone else with access to the account just carries on as if nothing happened. Nobody else is affected, nobody else needs to be informed of a new password or have their 2FA key updated.

    3. Re:Seriously??? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Since the North Korean hack at around this time last year, shouldn't Sony have beefed up their security?

    4. Re:Seriously??? by k6mfw · · Score: 1

      Why is there security consistently so bad?

      I keep asking the same. Why, why, why?!?! I met a bank loan officer asking with one hack after another, and all of us are pretty much alarm fatigued by it all so we ignore it, is how does his bank deal with it? Does he get a lot of scam emails? His answer is they have triple layer, this and that security... Yeah I also asked we have heard this from many other companies and agencies, and yet they've been hacked. He couldn't really answer that question and I don't think anyone can.

      --
      mfwright@batnet.com
  2. The first tweet was right by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Informative

    Britney Spears' career died a long time ago.

    1. Re:The first tweet was right by gtall · · Score: 1

      Her career has gone where all careers go to die, Las Vegas.

    2. Re:The first tweet was right by krakelohm · · Score: 1

      At 15 million a year in Vegas sign me up for career death!

      --
      You are all a bunch of idots.
    3. Re:The first tweet was right by k6mfw · · Score: 1

      I believe she still has success with music sales and concerts, obviously not as much as before, surprisingly Britney managed to keep active in the business this long. I was thinking of her doing another genre like Julie London singing songbook standards of Porter, Gershwin, Berlin, etc. and also wear the beautiful dresses like Julie, http://jazztimes.com/articles/...

      --
      mfwright@batnet.com
    4. Re:The first tweet was right by will_die · · Score: 1

      Most shows are sold out and she does not have to travel to give a concert, the audiences come to her.

  3. so what? by tekkahtek · · Score: 1, Informative

    If people get their news from a Twitter feed, then who cares if they're duped. They deserve it. Twitter is not a news service. It is a "Look, Ma, no hands," brain bleed.

    1. Re:so what? by DamonHD · · Score: 1

      While being smug and rude about $SOCIAL_PLATFORM_DU_JOUR is kinda amusing, for the record I have received plenty of important (to me) items of news via Twitter that took a long time to make it via conventional media, if at all, such as the death of a (non-celeb) hero of mine.

      Rgds

      Damon

      --
      http://m.earth.org.uk/
    2. Re:so what? by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 1

      Actually, you are incorrect. Many if not most private/public companies, journalists, and politicians all use Twitter to disseminate news, bypassing web sites, which they formerly used to bypass the "formal" press. What, an artist's record label reports that one of their marquee acts has died, and the public is supposed to respond, "yeah, sure, I'll believe it when I read it in the Washington Post?'

      Get with the times, son...

    3. Re:so what? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      GFY: everybody's perception of heroes doesn't match yours i.e. is not someone that only the media is interested in

  4. Seems to be really, really easy to hack Sony... by gweihir · · Score: 2

    The second group could apparently do it in short notice. The term "gross negligence" comes to mind. It is time that companies that handle customer data and have some brand recognition will pay more in fines for things like this than they saved in IT security cost...

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:Seems to be really, really easy to hack Sony... by alphatel · · Score: 3, Funny

      We apologize for the fault in the tweets.
      Those responsible for hacking the people who have just been hacked have been hacked.

      --
      When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
  5. Figures by Opportunist · · Score: 1, Redundant

    After many, many great artists dying this year, with Lemmy dead, Bowie, Cohen, Michaels... THAT one had to be the fake one.

    Fuck this year, I'm done with you, 2016.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:Figures by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      That one guy who used to be named Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou.

      Sorry, I have trouble correctly pronouncing those complicated foreign names.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  6. A Britney Spears song for Sony... by antdude · · Score: 1

    o/` ... oops, I did it again ... o/`

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  7. Am I awful. . . . by Salgak1 · · Score: 2

    . . . to say that 2016 isn't over yet ? Britney still has a chance!

  8. Ha! by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

    Funnily enough, after Sony Music Entertainment Twitter account was hacked and started tweeting about the death of Spears, another hacker group called OurMine hacked Sony's account to note that Spears is not dead.

    Now she knows how Schroedinger's cat feels.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  9. Could've been better by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 1

    I was going to say "and nothing of value was lost."

    --
    ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
  10. Blame it on the state by PingSpike · · Score: 1

    Time to check which boogie man foreign power is currently in the news the most, assign blame for the hack to them and then continue on without changing anything.

  11. Re:I think shes just happy for publicity.. by unixisc · · Score: 1

    She did such a great job that her kids were awarded to her ex, while her younger sister got knocked up while still underage, and then married. I doubt there's anything in the sex department that she has left to peddle

  12. Fame by mobdev_outsourcing · · Score: 1

    These mortals are ready to do everything to gain more popularity. It concerns both Britney and Sony.