Newsrooms May Revisit Security After AP Hacking

News organizations may have to revisit policies on retweeting breaking news and shore up the security of their social-media accounts in the fallout from Tuesday's hacking of the Associated Press' Twitter account, media watchers say.

According to Roger Yu at USAToday, the drama — which unfolded within an hour and sank the stock market by 143 points before it rebounded — is yet another reminder that news agencies' Twitter accounts are indispensable but occasionally unwieldy tools ultimately controlled by a third party.

The official AP account tweeted early Tuesday afternoon that the White House was attacked and President Obama was injured. Six minutes later, the same account confirmed that it was "a bogus tweet."

The AP also subsequently confirmed that its account was hacked, and AP reporter Mike Baker told his followers on Twitter that it was a result of a phishing e-mail, in which the culprit tries to get personal information under false pretenses.

The Syrian Electronic Army, which supports President Bashar al-Assad, later took credit for hacking the AP account.

The same group also reportedly hacked into BBC Weather's Twitter account earlier this year and posted several political messages related to Syria.

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