BP's Twitter Account Compromised Amid Ongoing Oil Spill Emergency

Oil giant BP suffered further embarrassment on Thursday after its official Twitter account was hacked. Pranksters purloined the @BP_America Twitter account to write "Terry is now in charge of operation Top Kill, work will recommence after we find a XXL wetsuit. #bpcares #oilspill" The message, which was deleted around 30 minutes after it was posted, was contained an in-joke referring to the fake Twitter account @BPGlobalPR. The wag updating this account regularly references a character called Terry in its satirical tweets.

Security firm Sophos speculates that poor password security might be behind the hack on the official Twitter account. Alternatively the password might have been captured via a phishing scam.

In any case the hack could hardly have happened at a worse time for BP, which is under fierce public criticism over the continuing oil spill from a platform it owns in the Gulf of Mexico.

The link for this article located at The Register UK is no longer available.