The main Twitter account for the Associated Press was hacked Tuesday and sent out a disturbing tweet to 1.9 million followers about an explosion at the White House and injuries to President Barack Obama. The tweet was quickly dismissed as a hack.
The tweet, issued just after 1 p.m. ET, read: “Breaking: 2 Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.” It was retweeted at least 1,849 times before the account was suspended, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A Twitter account belonging to the “Syrian Electronic Army” claimed responsibility for the hack in a tweet of its own.
Twitter accounts for CBS News shows, including “60 Minutes,” “48 Minutes” and CBS Denver, were also hacked last week. The Syrian Electronic Army was reportedly responsible.
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.
