The Associated Press' Twitter account was hacked on Tuesday. Moments later, the Syrian Electronic Army claimed responsibility for the attack.
Just after 1 p.m., the news organization tweeted:
The message spread quickly, with Twitter users immediately wondering if the account had been hacked. The Associated Press' corporate communications account clarified the tweet was fake minutes later.
The AP's Sam Hananel, who writes about labor and employment issues, tweeted that the account had been hacked.
The AP Stylebook account confirmed the hack.
CBS News reported that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney confirmed that "the president is fine," in response to the AP's Twitter feed.
The AP announced that it would be suspending its Twitter account in response to the hacking. The news organization added:
The tweet, which said that there had been two explosions at the White House and President Barack Obama was injured, came after hackers made repeated attempts to steal the passwords of AP journalists.
The AP's Mike Baker tweeted that "the hack came less than an hour after some of us received an impressively disguised phishing email." The false alarm sent the Dow plunging 145 points between 1:08 p.m. ET and 1:10 p.m. The market quickly bounced back to roughly where it had been before the hack.
The Syrian Electronic Army, an organization that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, tweeted,
Twitter accounts for CBS News, including the "60 Minutes," "48 Minutes" and CBS Denver feeds, were also hacked last week. The Syrian Electronic Army was also reportedly responsible.
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