Hackers plant bogus celebrity stories on Sony Music Ireland website

Filed Under: Vulnerability

Rebecca BlackIf you went to the website of Sony Music Ireland (sonymusic.ie) earlier today you would have discovered some astonishing celebrity stories:

  • Scientists have proved that the X Factor TV show is for the stupid.
  • Two members of the Irish pop band "The Script" were found dead in their backstage dressing room.
  • Rebecca Black (the teenage singer who became an internet meme after her phenomenally bad "Friday" video became a YouTube hit) has married R Kelly in Disneyland.
    Perhaps most astonishingly of all, the story claims that Miss Black has joined Sony's security team.

Part of Sony Music Ireland's defaced website

If it's true that Rebecca Black is going to be helping Sony with their computer security, then she's going to be kept busy.

But, of course, all of the stories are fake.

Hackers appear to have broken into Sony Music Ireland's site and planted the bogus celebrity stories. It's just the latest in a long line of attacks upon Sony websites, and further embarrasses the company as it tries to protect its online reputation.

Sony Music Ireland is presently redirecting visitors to its website to its Facebook page instead. Presumably they will bring the site back online once they are confident they have got its security under proper control.

If you run a website it's essential that you ensure it is being kept as secure as possible. If you haven't already done so, read this informative paper by SophosLabs, "Securing websites", which covers some of the issues.

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4 Responses to Hackers plant bogus celebrity stories on Sony Music Ireland website

  1. Pheonix says:

    its easy to get rid of all these things if you have firefox just install ADBLOCK + for firefox and theres no more ads scams malware or spyware on every website you see :D its awesome

  2. Pheonix says:

    Easy ways to spot these scams

    1. scientists wouldnt say for the stupid they would say the mentally challenged or retarded
    stupid is a kids word

    2.R Kelly would never marry Rebecca black nor would rebecca black sign for sonys security team to get in a security team you must have a background in computers and other things

    3.If any of this ever happened it would be on the news

  3. Pheonix says:

    oh another thing they spelled pedophile as "Paedophile"

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About the author

Graham Cluley is senior technology consultant at Sophos. The readers of Computer Weekly voted him security blogger of the year in 2009 and 2010, and he pipped Stephen Fry to the title of "Twitter user of the year" too. Which was nice. He was also named "Best Security Blogger" by the readers of SC Magazine in 2011. You can subscribe to Graham's updates on Facebook, follow him on Twitter and circle him on Google Plus for regular updates.