World War III? Not so much: UPI, NY Post Twitter accounts hacked

The Twitter accounts of United Press International and the New York Post were hacked Friday, the latest in a string of Twitter takeovers aimed at news organizations in the last week and a half.

The hacked tweets, which were immediately deleted from the Post's account and lingered slightly longer in UPI's feed before being removed, announced fake breaking news stories.

One that read, "BREAKING: Chinese anti-ship missile fired at USS George Washington" was followed closely by a supposed update to the story: "US Joint Chief of staff: USS George Washington damaged, US navy now engaged in active combat against Chinese vessels in South China sea."

CBS News confirmed with a spokesman for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that no Chinese anti-ship missile was fired at the Navy's George Washington aircraft carrier.

Other false tweets said that the Federal Reserve had announced a week-long bank holiday, and that the pope had announced the start of World War III.

The hack didn't bear the obvious hallmarks of attacks leveled by the group CyberCaliphate on theTwitter feeds of the Albuquerque Journal and Maryland news station and CBS affiliate WBOC-TV last week and on the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Monday. In each of those cases, the Twitter account profile photos were changed to a face concealed by a scarf with the words "CyberCaliphate" and "i love you isis."

The photos on UPI and the Post's Twitter pages were not changed.