Fast Company, an American business magazine, revealed that hackers broke into its content management system (CMS) and took control of its Apple News account. The monthly publication emphasizes commerce, technology, and design. The magazine releases six print editions yearly in addition to its online edition.
Tuesday night, Apple News said on Twitter that Fast Company’s account had been suspended because hackers had posted two offensive statements on it. “An incredibly offensive alert was sent by Fast Company, which has been hacked. Apple News has disabled their channel,” said Apple News.
A few hours later, Fast Company acknowledged on Twitter that its Apple News account had been compromised due to hackers getting into its CMS. According to the magazine, a hacker accessed Fast Company’s Apple News account on Tuesday evening. About a minute apart, two offensive and racist push alerts were issued. The statements are abhorrent and inconsistent with Fast Company’s culture and substance.
The magazine also declared that its website, which is still down, and feed had been suspended. “To clarify: Fast Company’s content management system (CMS) was hacked on Tuesday evening, which impacted our Apple News alerts,” said the company.
This hack is the second one that Fast Company has experienced in recent days. The magazine had a similar attack on Sunday, which led to articles on the journal’s webpage being changed to contain vulgar language. The perpetrators wrote a note on Fast Company’s website during the Tuesday event, criticizing the magazine for its inadequate response to the Sunday attack.
“Wow, Fast Company. Despite the public defacement of your site, which boasts millions of visitors, all you did was hastily change your database credentials, disable outside connections to the database server, and fix the articles,” part of the message read.
The hacker also said that Fast Company employed a straightforward default password for several accounts, giving them access to private information, including access tokens and API credentials. Over 6,000 Fast Company employee records, but no customer records, were allegedly obtained by the hacker during the Sunday incident.
