BuzzFeed Hacked By OurMine As Group Accuses Site of Publishing 'Fake News' (thedrum.com) 27
BuzzFeed has become the latest website to be compromised by hackers. A number of stories on the website have been vandalized by hackers in what appears a retaliation for a story that claimed to expose a member of their group. The hacker group, which calls itself OurMine, changed titles of several BuzzFeed posts to note that the website has been hacked. There's another note left by hackers which says "share fake news about us again." From a report: Several stories on BuzzFeed.com have been affected, with The Drum receiving the below message on a link that was meant to contain a news feature. The hackers warned BuzzFeed that it has the media owner's "database," adding: "Next Time it will be public. Don't fuck with OurMine again." The group has claimed responsibility for several high-profile hacks over the past 12 months including security breaches which saw them access the accounts of Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, Google boss Sundar Pichai and former Twitter head Dick Costolo. Some Twitter users were reporting that hacking outfit's message had appeared on "dozens" of articles on BuzzFeed, but the site appears to have dealt with the cyber attack quite quickly.
Re:Buzzfeed? (Score:5, Funny)
What the fuck is Buzzfeed? I have never even heard of it until now.
It's kind of like "The Onion" only they don't realize their news is all fake.
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At the very least it can be accused of frequently presenting opinion as fact and deals mainly in fluff rather than substantial news.
It's essentially the news site for 12 year old girls.
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So kinda like a more interesting version of CNN and Fox?
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Buzzfeed's business model isn't based around posting good content Nor it it based around posting bad content. It's about maximizing click-throughs, which means providing good content to people like you (i.e., smart people) and garbage content for all the idiots (i.e., people not like you) out there on the Internet.
But of course the cultural value of Buzzfeed is beside the point. Nobody in a free society gets to edit things other people say about them.
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Seems to have already been fixed. (Score:1)
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It's okay. Just make sure you don't click on or even look at ads, this problem will go away by itself.
10 unbelievable ways to hack a news site... (Score:2)
Why that guy? (Score:1)
OMG! Buzzfeed isn't a bastion of real news? (Score:4, Insightful)
Right now, the front page of Buzzfeed includes such insightful articles as "23 Study Superstitions That Helped People Pass Exams", "We Know Your Fave 'Mean Girls' Character Based On Your Fave Cheese" and "All 47 Vice Presidents, Ranked by Hotness".
The only shocking thing here is that the hackers seem to think that people see Buzzfeed as a source of real news.
Re:OMG! Buzzfeed isn't a bastion of real news? (Score:5, Informative)
The only shocking thing here is that the hackers seem to think that people see Buzzfeed as a source of real news.
That's because it *is* treated as real news, it's also considered a reliable source on sites like Wikipedia. While political sites with original reporting like Washington Examiner aren't considered reliable.
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Have you been to Yahoo News lately? Or the Chicago Sun Times?
Today, it seems almost all news sites are headed down the pop-culture/listicle/X-weird-tricks toilet.
Wait, what? (Score:4, Informative)
Get out.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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This man needs props
Pretty sure I know how it was done... (Score:5, Funny)
The hackers found one weird trick that webmasters don't want them to know!
Unique to Buzzfeed? (Score:2)
TechDirt has been posting Fake News for years...er "tech rumors and dirt". Mudslinging with a tech focus is their brand.
Buzzfeed is more of a stream of whispers sourced by tweets, posts, texts and email. Both site are awful sources of "news", since that's not what they do.