Music

Hackers send bomb threats to airline from Tame Impala's twitter

by Jeremy Mersereau

Fans who follow Australia’s premiere psych-rockers Tame Impala on social media received a rude shock earleir this week, when the band’s Twitter account began broadcasting bomb threats towards JetBlue:

Either Tame Impala had their Twitter hacked, or they embarked on a particularly ill-advised psychedelic mindfreak. Of course, it’s the former: the bomb threats were purportedly the work of hackers, says an anonymous cyber denizen by the name of “J5Z”, who claims responsibility for hijacking several other musicians’ and celebrities’ Twitter streams over the past week. Other alleged recent J5Z Twitter hacking victims include Keith Richards, producer RL Grime, Bon Iver, the late George Harrison, and Tenacious D, whose account announced the death of Jack Black last week:

Speaking to The Daily Beast, J5Z says that he’s the source of much of the recent hacking, but the Tame Impala bomb threats are the work of a ‘friend.’ To hear them tell it, J5Z nobly is just trying to raise awareness through high-profile accounts about the vulnerability of social media account security:

J5Z, who claims to be Canadian, has some tips for anyone who wants to keep their account secure from people like himself: “Use multiple emails, passwords, etc. Don’t use the obvious stuff like your [date of birth] or name in your password or email. Stop using information that anyone can guess.”

If his alleged hacks are anything to go by, J5Z’s desire just to make people stand up and take notice is genuine: messages left on George Harrison’s and UK EDM DJ Nick Warren’s Twitter accounts read “Please DM me when you can see this so I can help your accounts become more secure, thanks.” J5Z also expressed remorse for not realizing Harrison was deceased… on Harrison’s Twitter, naturally:

Dude, you know what account hacking would make people stand up and take way more notice than the likes of RL Grime and Tenacious D? @LockheedMartin. How hard can their password be to guess? My money’s on “shock&awe123”.

[h/t Noisey]