This has been a week of tragic celebrity deaths (Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon). And a couple of days back, it was the pop princess Britney Spears! Well, rather a Tweet (with a Twitpic) on her official Twitter page that read the following:
“Britney has passed today. It is a sad day for everyone. More news to come.”
Well… well… Pranksters get weird kicks hacking accounts and posting wicked stuff.
The Tweet was deleted in no time, but the message did make it to Britney’s account. A message was also sent out her fans through Twitter itself setting clarifying that the news wasn’t true.
“Britney’s Twitter was just hacked. The last message is obviously not true. She is fine and dandy spending a quiet day at home relaxing.”
Apparently, it was reported that several Twitter accounts of celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres and Diddy were hacked that day, which displayed fake death announcements.
Apart form the Twitter account of Britney Spears, others hacked were the accounts of George Clooney, Miley Cyrus, Ellen DeGeneres, Harrison Ford, Natalie Portman, Diddy, and Jeff Goldblum, etc. spreading their fake death reports.
Twitpic had discovered a vulnerability in their mobile posting system where someone can brute force someone’s twitpic email address (i.e. guess their PIN number by trying every combination). Twitpic seems to have patched the vulnerability now that saw Britney Spears’ Twitter account report her death.
This is the second time Britney Spears has fallen prey to the Internet hackers on Twitter. Last time it was in January when hackers posted a series of “adult-only” messages on her page.
Wonder what Britney has to say about this… Hit me baby one more time?
