The Tribune

IT LOOKS like the NFL needs to change its Twitter password after another high profile hacking yesterday.

The league’s official Twitter account was hacked with with a fake tweet saying Commissioner Roger Goodell had died. “We regret to inform our fans that our commissioner, Roger Goodell, has passed away. He was 57. #RIP.”

The NFL responded quicker than a strong side safety blitz, announcing the league’s Twitter account was hacked. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, who tweeted to confirm the hacking, added that Goodell “is alive and well”.

The hack is the latest involving big-name Twitter accounts, including pop stars Katy Perry, Drake and reality star Kylie Jenner. On Sunday, Ourmine, a hacker group with 41,000 followers on Twitter, claimed to have compromised Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts. In a tweet, the group bragged about the alleged hacks and invited Zuckerberg to contact the group.

The hacks come after LinkedIn said last month more than 100 million members’ email and password combinations had been posted online. The data was taken during a 2012 data breach. A separate set of 6.5 million encrypted passwords stolen during that attack had previously been posted.

Although the NFL deleted yesterday’s bogus tweet, the hacker did not stop. In a second tweet, the hacker wrote, “Oi, I said Roger Goodell has died. Don’t delete that tweet.” In a third tweet the hacker gave up, saying, “OK, OK, you amateur detectives win. Good job.”

The hacker’s tweets have been retweeted thousands of times.

TERRY COLLINS

Cnet.com