Group which hacked Palin's e-mail now targeting other Christians

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

A malicious hacking attack on a Christian dating site has been used to break into Facebook accounts and post obscene and racist comments.

The online group called 4chan - which hacked former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin's email account and spread hoax news about a spate of celebrity deaths - is now targeting Christians on Facebook.

The hackers stole login details and passwords from an unnamed Christian dating site and used them to break into Facebook accounts.

So what kind of web mayhem has 4chan been engaged in lately? A few examples:

Posing as one devout Christian woman who had committed to no sex before marriage, they published a status update on her page thanking “Michael” for sex the night before.

To make it more believable, they then posted an update that it was actually intended to be a private message and had been published by mistake.

Status updates posted on other hacked Christians' Facebook profiles included racist hate messages and messages pretending that the poster had contemplated suicide or had accidentally killed a homeless person.

The hackers also caused trouble between the users and their friends, writing on one user's photo that their baby was “ugly” and on another woman's photo that her teeth matched her skin.

How uplifting! This is the kind of scum David Kernell, the son of Tennessee Democrat state Rep. Mike Kernell of Memphis, was trying to impress when he hacked into Sarah Palin's e-mail account.

If you think what these cybergoons do isn't that big of a deal, consider this:

In October last year, Apple's share price tanked after 4chan users spread a false report claiming chief executive office Steve Jobs had suffered a major heart attack.

Pretty big deal if you own Apple stock.

- JP