Any number of right-wing politicians, radio shock jocks and “rodeo clowns” have tried to use Fox News as a stepping stone to a higher calling.

 

Fourth of July was the first time a group of hackers tried it. "Fox News was selected because we figured their security would be just as much of a joke as their reporting," said a spokesman for the shadowy group that claimed credit for hijacking the Fox News politics Twitter account and tweeting the death of President Obama.

 

Script Kiddies made its public debut by claiming Obama had been shot while campaigning in Iowa. The group posted six tweets with all the gruesome details in 140 characters or less. One post said the president  “has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July indeed.” The next one said he had been  “shot twice in the lower pelvic area and in the neck; shooter unknown.”  

 

The President had actually been spending the weekend at Camp David with his family.

 

In an interview with Think, the student newspaper at Stony Brook University, a representative of the group not only proclaimed solidarity with other known hacker groups, it claimed to have two former members of the most famous one, Anonymous, within its ranks.

 

“It will be a never-ending battle,” said the representative. “The names change from time to time like LulzSec and Anonymous or Script Kiddies. But there will always be a group of people that need to stand up for everyone else and attempt to keep the government in balance with its people. Without groups like Anonymous, what is there to prevent corruption?”

 

Anonymous has taken down more than a half-dozen major websites in Orlando, Florida, in recent weeks and spammed the city with thousands of faxes in protest of a recently-passed ordinance that prohibits feeding the homeless in city parks. Anonymous hacked the Chamber of Commerce, Orlando International Airport, the mayor’s re-election website and the city’s Fraternal Order of the Police.

 

So-called hacktivist groups have targeted corporations and government entities, often to uncover and expose information they feel the public has a right to know. But sometimes, just to mess with them.

 

The Secret Service is investigating.

-Ken Broder

 

Meet Script Kiddies, the Group Behind the Obama Death Hoax (International Business Times)

Script Kiddies Hack Fox News Account, Tweet Obama's Death (by Nicholas Jackson, The Atlantic)

Anonymous, Food Not Bombs to Test Orlando Police Monday by Feeding Homeless (by Stephen C. Webster, The Raw Story)

Hackers Commandeer a Fox News Twitter Account (by Liz Robbins and Brian Stelter, New York Times)

Think Talks with the Group that Hacked a Fox News Twitter Account (Think)