NBC News Twitter Acct Hacked, Posts Fake 9/11 Hoax

The eyes of the world were set on US media sources this past weekend, as millions mourned and remembered the 10 year anniversary of the tragic terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.

In an effort to recreate the panic that was a decade ago, sick-minded hackers infiltrated the Twitter account of NBC News and sent out a handful of false tweets to followers around the world. The messages spoke of a suspected airplane hijacking and that another similar attack was planned for Sunday, with Ground Zero once again the target.

NBC News correspondents intercepted the false tweets at around 6pm on Friday. Twitter was contacted soon after and the account was subsequently suspended. (Source: yahoo.com)

At the time, NBC anchor Brian Williams read a statement live on the air to acknowledge that the reports were indeed incorrect.

Suspicious Group Mentioned in Tweets

While those responsible for the attack have yet to be identified, a group calling themselves "Script Kiddies" is mentioned in the tweets and is considered the likely culprits. (Source: socialbarrel.com)

The original account was later restored, about an hour later, with the false tweets removed. NBC pledged to contact authorities, including the New York Police Department and the FBI, about the incident.

NBC News Twitter Viewership Unknown

It's not known exactly how many people saw the bogus tweets at the time of posting, but with a number of news outlets promoting continuous coverage of the forthcoming day's events, most users could tell pretty easily that a hoax was afoot.

It also remains uncertain what, if anything, the hacker gained from such an attack, though it was most likely to have their name in the public eye on a weekend when viewership was expectedly high is a likely factor.