Earlier today, Burger King's Twitter account was hacked by the Anonymous hacker group. Feb. 18, 2013, Digital Trends broke this huge story that another major corporations web presence was hacked.
Monday started like any other day for the social media manager of Burger King. Then, their phone started to ring and emails flooded in by the hundreds. Burger King's account was taken over for more than a couple hours. Burger King's official Twitter account's name was changed to McDonald's. Then, the hacker sent out their first authorized tweet:
Just got sold to McDonald's because the Whopper flopped :( FREEDOM IS FAILURE. mcdonalds.com. In a hood near you. info.bk.com/press/sold-to/"
Burger King's twitter account remained in the hackers grasp for more than two hours. The account was officially suspended at 1:15 pm ET. Before the account was suspended, the hacker group sent out a flurry of offensive tweets that spread across Twitter and the Internet like a brushfire.
The perpetrator of the @BurgerKing account hijacking repeatedly called out @DFNCTSC, or the Defonic Team Screen Name Club, a group of hackers that broke into Paris Hilton’s Sidekick back in 2005 and released her racy photos onto the Web. One member of the group, a 17-year-old from Massachusetts, pled guilty to the hack in September 2005. (Digital Trends)"
At one point, the hackers asked users to “follow us” with links to massively popular Anonymous Twitter account @YourAnonNews. A later tweet from @YourAnonNews stated that “the King has been dethroned. (Digital Trends)."
There has been no official announcement from Burger King directly or its PR company Coyne who may handle Burger King's official social media presence and press releases. McDonald's recently sent out a tweet that sympathized with their rival Burger King and confirmed they did not have anything to do with the recent hack on Burger King's Twitter account.
This continues a never ending string of hacks on major corporations across the Internet that has continued for weeks now. It has to make major companies and the world wonder if this is leading to some sort of larger attack against multiple companies to bring them to their knees? Or is it only coincidence with a dash of fun and games? All major corporations will be reevaluating their online websites and social media security policies to amp up awareness and close off any possible openings that could allow for another attack.
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