One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Sony Music, Bob Dylan Twitter Accounts Hacked, Tweet Fake Reports Of Britney Spears' Death
Britney. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)
Some Twitter users were holding their collective breaths on early Monday morning, when it was announced on Sony Global Music’s Twitter account that singer Britney Spears had passed, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
Weirdly, Bob Dylan’s official Twitter account also tweeted at Spears, evoking his sadness with a grief-stricken emoji:
Hoax? Right. Spears is alive and well. And Dylan has other, better things to do than read up on fake news on Twitter (not that we thought the Nobel laureate is managing his own Twitter account, anyway).
The culprit, it seems, is a hacker group that goes by the moniker "Our Mine." Both the Sony and Dylan accounts also tweeted to say they'd been hacked by Our Mine, but it's unclear if these tweets were official, or written by the group itself. A third tweet on the Dylan account also had the #OurMine hashtag.
Sponsored message
All the tweets have since been deleted.
As noted by Vulture, the group has been responsible for past hacks on the accounts of Marvel Comics, Channing Tatum, and even the grand maestro of the internet—Mark Zuckerberg. In one attack that truly crossed the line, the group went into the YouTube account of Markiplier (a.k.a Mark Fischbach), a popular internet personality, and tweeted (from Our Mine’s own Twitter account) information that supposedly reveals Fischbach’s earnings from 2015, reports Quartz.
Our Mine’s Twitter account was suspended after the attack on Zuckerberg’s account. There’s a blog site that’s supposedly owned by the group, but it has yet to announce anything with regards to the Sony hack. It’s unclear if Our Mine is comprised of multiple conspirers, or just a single individual.
The latest hack bears added weight for Sony, which was victim to an infamous hack back in 2014. That attack was possibly coordinated in North Korea, maybe as retaliation for James Franco and Seth Rogen's comedy flick that parodied Kim Jong-un (and showed him going up in literal flames). As a result of the hack, loads of data from Sony Pictures were dumped online for public viewing.
And in case there’s an inkling of doubt in your head about Spears’ welfare, CNN got in touch with her rep and reported that she’s definitely still kicking:
Sponsored message
Britney Spears is alive and well, her rep tells CNN. It appears @SonyMusicGlobal erroneously tweeted her death. Sony rep says no comment
— AnneClaire Stapleton (@AnneClaireCNN) December 26, 2016
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
