The Agence France-Presse (AFP) has become the latest victim of a Twitter hack today, with its famed photo department’s account being hacked. The publication released a statement saying that any documents or images posted to the account after 17:45 today were not from the AFP. Right now, the account has been suspended by Twitter.
The news comes just days after the Twitter accounts of Jeep and Burger King were the victims of another cyber attack. However, at this time, there does not appear to be any evidence indicating that the hack on the AFP’s account was executed by the same individual or group. Twitter responded with all due haste to suspend the account — but the account remained compromised for a few hours.
It appears our @afpphoto Twitter account has been hacked. Recent photos posted are NOT ours. Unable to delete but working on it
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) February 26, 2013
AFP’s Twitter account @afpphoto was pirated today at 17h45Any documents or images posted on this account after 17:45 are NOT from AFP.
— Jade Montane (@jmontane_AFP) February 26, 2013
In the now suspended account, the AFP confirms that it was hacked and if you managed to catch the site before it was taken offline, you might have noticed that it was promoting pro-Syrian government and anti-Obama tweets and images.
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The AFP’s photo department only recently set up its Twitter account where it would share photos headlined by the media and give an opportunity for fans to access the most popular images used by the press. The AFP has a network of 500 photographers and has received numerous prestigious international awards. It distributes over 2,500 photos each day and was created in 1985.
Main header image: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
Photo credit: imgur.com
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