Apparent Fox News website hack was ‘routine maintenance’
For a short period Tuesday, the network’s top-story headline was ‘Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee’ with the sub-headline, ‘Stuff yo.’ The date was also incorrect.
It’s rare for Fox News and The New York Times to share any similarities, but what seemed like a hack to Fox News’ website Tuesday turned out to be a similar situation to one the Times experienced back in August. What people were calling a cyberattack was no attack at all; it was someone inside the organization doing maintenance that caused the problem. In the Times’ case, the website simply went down for a while. Fox’s mishap was considerably more entertaining. For a portion of Tuesday afternoon, the headline for FoxNews.com’s top story was “Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.” That’s 27 e’s. We counted. The sub-headline read simply, “Stuff yo.” This was all below a picture of what looked like police gathering on a roadway to respond to an emergency. Also curious: The date on the site was changed to May 16, 2013, the date that four members of the hacker group Lulzsec were sentenced to prison in London, Mashable notes.
That’s apparently a coincidence. While the home page was compromised, Fox News issued this tweet:
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today
Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.
