back to article Burger King's tweets fried after hijackers pimp Big Macs

Pranksters hijacked Burger King's official Twitter feed on Monday and turned it into a advertising stream for arch-rival McDonald's. The usual promotional content on @BurgerKing was replaced by updates referencing McDonald's, rap videos, Anonymous and lax password security at the fast food giant. "Somebody needs to tell …

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  1. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Joke

    "Staff working McDonald's tweets expressed sympathy and distanced themselves from the BK attack."

    And changed their password from "bigmac987" to something else.

    1. M.D.
      Joke

      Careful..... :)

      Re: "Staff working McDonald's tweets expressed sympathy and distanced themselves from the BK attack."

      Steady on, you can get prosecuted for that kind of password exposure y'know, ask them Folks at Wikileaks!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Careful..... :)

        I'll bet the guys at McDonalds are laughing their ass off.

  2. Locky
    Childcatcher

    Hack?

    Guessing an insecure password is a hacking now? Really?

    Script kids these days don't know they're born etc

    1. M.D.
      Devil

      Re: Hack?

      Script kids have never known their born. Give me old days of war-diallers & "NC"

      ;-)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hack?

      Sorry to say their password wasn't wopper123, Anon didn't say how they got access but it was likely through an indirect route.

    3. NumptyScrub
      Holmes

      Re: Hack?

      quote: "Guessing an insecure password is a hacking now? Really?"

      Yes, really. Gaining unauthorised access to a computer system, including but not limited to already knowing the password, but not being "authorised" to log in to it at the time you logged in, is a crime. With custodial sentencing.

      It's to remove culpability from corporations for lax password and account security, and place it squarely on the person. There are several servers at work which I have root to, however if I have not signed the access forms and got them authorised beforehand, I could be in big trouble. :)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hack?

        Still not hack. Illegal & cracking yes, hacking no.

  3. Pen-y-gors

    A confused old fart writes....

    just why would anyone bother to 'follow' (as I believe the term is) a twitter feed for Burger King (or KFC, or Macdoanlds or Pizza Express or...)?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A confused old fart writes....

      The penny pinching hoop jumpers.

    2. theblackhand

      Re: A confused old fart writes....

      Maybe they follow to find out where the latest store openings are so they can dress up in their finest trainers and baseball cap to attend these big events.

      Or maybe they just want to find out how much horse is in their burgers......

      1. Steve the Cynic

        Re: A confused old fart writes....

        "maybe they just want to find out how much horse is in their burgers"

        The thing I find interesting is that the horse meat scandal *did* include fast food joints like BK. In the US, these firms maintain(ed) very tight traceability on their supply chains. It's mostly to be able to easily defeat "finger in my burger" lawsuits - they can trace a burger back to a particular slaughterhouse on a particular day, and the investigation reveals that no, there wasn't a severed-finger incident on that day. Despite this, there's a series of fine upstanding citizens[*] who sue BK, McDonalds, and others for this. It's never true.

        (ed) in brackets because I don't know if this is still the case.

        [*] translation: prime f*ckwits.

        1. Magister

          Re: A confused old fart writes....

          >> In the US, these firms maintain(ed) very tight traceability on their supply chains. >>

          That's been true over here for the last couple of decades. The amount of paperwork involved is extremely high. (I know this having worked in a slaughterhouse for 5 years, some 12 years ago; one that supplied about 20% of the beef to the burger processing plant for McDonalds). The beef all came from UK and Eire; none came from outside of the UK.

          They knew which animals went into the production facility, what food they had during their lives, what medical treatment, where they had been and when they had travelled between farms. They knew their dams and sires going back over 30 generations; and although the DB was a bit antiquated by todays standards, they could still analyse it to see if there were any medical abnormalities in related animals.

          1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

            Re: A confused old fart writes....

            they just forget a field for "species=cow"

          2. joeW

            Re: A confused old fart writes....

            "The beef all came from UK and Eire; none came from outside of the UK."

            I think you'll find Éire is outside of the UK. There was a bit of a scuffle around 90 years ago about that.

        2. Q&A

          Re: A confused old fart writes....

          My maternal grandmother had her finger severed and ground up at an Oscar Mayer plant in the 60's. I have been told that the machines continued on as normal, while she was rushed away. Different times I guess.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: A confused old fart writes....

            The 60's you say. I remember having a weird tasting hot dog, I couldn't put a finger on the taste of it though.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A confused old fart writes....

      because the world is full of fat cheapskates that have never tasted real food and wouldn't know what a kitchen is.

  4. Snivelling Wretch
    Joke

    Arch-rival, geddit?

    1. NukEvil
      Thumb Up

      Bah...

      I was all set to post "I see what you did there", but you beat me to it. Sort of.

  5. bag o' spanners
    Mushroom

    mmmmm....tasty!

    Brand junkies pwned, but don't notice. Shock! exclusive! Film at eleven.

  6. adam payne

    Funny yes but hardly news worthy.

  7. Amorous Cowherder
    Facepalm

    Backfired?

    So they took over BK's account and stuffed with MaccyD's ads, well all this has done is put BK at the front of my mind and with it coming to lunchtime I know what my subconcious is thinking about now!

    1. IanzThingz
      Coat

      Re: Backfired?

      Well, no BK outlet near, but I do have some MaccyD vouchers and one of those up the road, and it is lunchtime here...

      Coat because, well its cold out there :)

    2. TRT Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: Backfired?

      They wanted to start a flame-grilled war.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: Backfired?

        Ha! Have you seen the roll-over tip for that post-icon?!

  8. Wize

    Responsible

    "A faction of Anonymous claimed responsibility for the hack, which took place yesterday on Presidents' Day, a national holiday in the US. However, other parts of Anonymous are claiming innocence, so it's hard to tell who is to blame beyond "anonymous" people on the internet."

    Reminds me of Douglas Adams - The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.

    "When a passenger check-in desk at Terminal Two, Heathrow Airport, shot up through the roof engulfed in a ball of orange flame the usual people tried to claim responsibility. First the IRA, then the PLO and the Gas Board. Even British Nuclear Fuels rushed out a statement to the effect that the situation was completely under control, that it was a one in a million chance, that there was hardly any radioactive leakage at all and that the site of the explosion would make a nice location for a day out with the kids and a picnic, before finally having to admit that it wasn’t actually anything to do with them at all. "

  9. Steve the Cynic

    Why?

    On the "highlighted articles" scroller on the front page, each article has a little picture. Why does the one for this story feature a picture taken from the Franco-Belgian[*] chain Quick? (The "Dark Vader" burger, one of a Dark Side / Light Side pair issued semi-recently in a marketing link-up with Lucasarts. For I don't know what reason, the "Darth" in "Darth Vader" was localised to "Dark" in the French versions of Star Wars material.)

    [*] Quick is of Belgian origin, but the majority shareholder these days is an arm of the French government.

    1. Kubla Cant
      Windows

      Re: Why?

      According to Bill Bryson, the name "Quick" is short for "Quick - a bucket!"

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well burger me!

    LOL

  11. rcorrect
    Facepalm

    That's amazing.

    I've got the same combination on my luggage!

    1. A K Stiles
      Pirate

      Re: That's amazing.

      You've got a combination on your luggage? Blimey, if the baggage handler at the airport wants to rummage through my socks and pants then good luck to them. They'd do it with or without a lock, but my way they only trash your bag throwing it at the aircraft rather than cutting their way in round the zip (allegedly...)

    2. asdf

      Re: That's amazing.

      Actually caused me to look and see Mel Brooks is still alive. His 15 minutes were a lot more memorable than most.

      1. asdf

        Re: That's amazing.

        Bah missed edit. Lol his 15 minutes lasted nearly 50 years lol. One of the few people with the distinction of having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Boring...

    So they hacked the feed, and the most imaginative thing they could think to do was put up a few adverts for McDonalds? Pft. Surely something like "to celebrate Presidents Day, we're giving away a free Whopper to anyone who shows this tweet" would have got more attention, and been retweeted a fair bit....

    1. asdf

      Re: Boring...

      Or to announce the new Horse Whopper to replace the old bland Whooper.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Boring...

        I'd call the Horse Whopper a 2CV myself

    2. Fibbles
      Trollface

      Re: Boring...

      Free Whopper to anyone who whispers the secret phrase 'Battletoads' to the cashier.

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