UPI, New York Post Twitter Accounts Hacked; Fake News Posted Claiming Chinese Attack

Twitter accounts belonging to United Press International and the New York Post were hacked early Friday afternoon, making them the latest in a long string of media organizations to have their online presences compromised.

The tweets, which have since been deleted, claimed that Chinese anti-ship missiles had struck the USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier based in Japan.

No group has yet come forward to claim responsibility for the attack.

Though the Post has regained control of its main account, @nypost, its business news-oriented account, @NYPostBiz, remains under hacker control. Its most recent pair of tweets at the time of this writing, which suggest that the Federal Reserve will be moving to a negative interest rate, are also false.

Late last year, a large number of news operations, including the Independent of London, the Chicago Tribune, CNBC and International Business Times, were hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army.