Twitter profile hack pwns Mormons

Microblogging Mormons are up in arms after the Twitter account of the Church of Latter Day Saints was hijacked by pranksters. Scallywags broke into the profile, probably by taking advantage of a weak password, to post tweets suggesting that the founder of the church, Joseph Smith, was a liar. Mendacious updates to the @ …

[My8bits]

I need specs or.....deprogramming?

I read the first few words as "Microblogging morons...." So it seems I have an automatic association with the Twitterati and intellect.

Mines the one with my Twitter password scrawled on a bit of paper in the pocket....naturally the password contains all my seven wives' names. ;)

[Alpha Tony]

O'rly

'suggested Smith had fabricated translations of sacred texts'

You mean the translation of the sacred texts from the mystical metal plates that no-one apart from him ever saw?

How could anyone suggest such a thing!

Next you'll be saying that he just made up that Jesus visited America.

[Martin Edwards]

Spread the word

So I was reading this and thinking "yeah, another account hijacking that's only in the news because it involves a famous name" and I wondered what value such an article has. I'll tell you the value: it reminds readers of the importance of using strong passwords. But this is lost on most people as such stories are casually reported badly or lacking in detail by the mainstream media. How many people who use "rover" or "hammy" to log in to all their accounts are going to hear this story on the BBC and think "crikey yeah, I must start using a better password"? I think probably none of them.

[Lloyd]

Jesus visited America???

Of course Jesus visited America, heck, everyone knows Jesus was American!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Passwords

When I worked at Michigan State University, people used to leave their passwords on post-it notes. I worked maintenance as a student (a fancy word for janitorial work, but it paid more) and every building we worked at had the same thing.

[Spleen]

"Mendacious"?

"Mendacious updates to the @LDSChurchNews feed suggested Smith had fabricated translations of sacred texts" - er, Smith did fabricate those translations. To describe these updates as "mendacious" (i.e. "lying", from the Latin "mendax", as ne fule kno) is to assert that Smith literally did translate the Book of Mormon from some golden plates (teehee, "golden plates") handed to him by an angel in the forest. Either someone is trying too hard at the journalistic clever-clever prose style by using long words they don't understand, or The Reg is run by Mormons.

[Jon Thompson 2]

Such fun!

Maybe that'll teach them to hassle good, upstanding atheists on the street.

[Joel Bjorge]

@Spread the word

and along those lines, can we please stop calling these "hacks"? A hack implies that a vulnerability was found and exploited in the code - that's a lot different than someone using an insecure password.

[Ihre Papiere Bitte!!]

@ Alpha Tony

"Next you'll be saying that he just made up that Jesus visited America."

There is, in fact, strong evidence* that Jesus did indeed visit South America.

Witness the fact that the Meso-Americans worshipped a God Quetzelcoatl, who was sometimes represented as a pale-skinned white man with a beard. This is why Cortez received such a nice welcome when he got there, they thought that it was Quetzelcoatl returning, as he had promised to do (just like Jesus promised to return). Quetzelcoatl also opposed human sacrifice, as did Jesus (or at least I'm pretty sure JC wasn't too hot on that anyways) which was unusual amongst this pantheon, who were generally quite keen on things like ripping the still-beating heart from a sacrifice and seeing if they recognise it.

* look, this is about the strongest evidence I've ever seen for anyone believing anything about any religion ever**.... And yes, I'm aware that it's incredibly flimsy all the same. And I'm aware that some historians dispute this as well, saying it's all based on Cortez' testimony, which is hardly impartial. And... oh fuck it. I need a drink.

**apart from TFSM of course. Who is real, may his Noodly Appendages bless you.

[Anonymous Coward]

@O'rly

No one apart from the the people who witnessed it, see http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bm/thrwtnss and http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bm/eghtwtns which are right at the front so hard to miss...

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope the Mormons realize

...that pretty much the entire SF Bay Area hates them since they perpetrated the Prop 8 thing.

[Disco-Legend-Zeke]

Ijoined the mormons... but.

when i found out they were lying about the extra wives i bailed out.

Paris, cuase she wouldn't mind a little extra help around the house.

[Bucky 2]

@Tony

You mean as opposed to the literal truth in all those OTHER religious tomes?

[maniax]

Or...

People should remember to use their head to filter information and not trust blindly ANYTHING. Or, they should accept that they are bloody morons. For any mormons, this should be pretty obvious anyway.

(seriously. any idiot can post idiocies on twitter. Why should they care? And why would any organization put so much trust in a service like Twatter, if their minds aren't fully washed of any rational thought)

(and yes, I use twatter. If i say there I'm getting married, people will check with me instead of going to buy gifts, for example)

Paris, for the similarity in mental capability.

[Pablo]

That's not a prank

That's the truth. A prank would have been something like: "ATTN all Mormons: We've been forced to issue a recall for all garments (holy underwear) made sense 1987 due to asbestos content."

[Anonymous Coward]

@My8bits

Only 7 wives? Hell got you beat, 9 here and 3 of them are sisters or cousins. . .

/Anon because I don't need to have the cops knocking at my door for a fictitious comment...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @My8bits. 21:03

"/Anon because I don't need to have the cops knocking at my door for a fictitious comment..."

Don't worry - North Wales Police's main priority is speeding motorists.

[Scott 1]

The witnesses...

To the Anonymous Coward posting about the witnesses, it's nice how they didn't post the part about how all of the witnesses concerned later recanted confessing that they were part of another one of Joseph Smith's religious scams (he was rather fond of swindling people out of their money by performing fake spiritual services before he "saw" the golden plates).

[Dave The Cardboard Box]

Damn those scallywags

and their close cousins, the ne'er do wells. It's only a matter of time before we have to put up with the scourge of society, scientists.

[Jach]

Thanks, Reg

I live in Utah, and this escaped my notice. Of course I don't watch t.v. any more, so the garbage of "Fox 13, Utah!" and other Mormon tentacles can't get me...

[EdwardP]

@Ihre Papiere Bitte!!

Seeing parallels in cultures is one thing (many/most cultures have a Jesus type figure.), but suggesting that the Biblical Jesus took time out to cross the Atlantic (a difficult/unheard of thing back then) is inviting people to laugh at you.

[Sam Liddicott]

@EdwardP

They don't just suggest he took the time to cross the Atlantic (which is probably unheard of because it's not the kind of thing you cross-all-the-way-back-again just to tell someone you did it) they claim he descended from the sky into America, which considering the bible claimed he ascended into the sky when he left Israel isn't any more far-fetched than most of Christian religion.

And a capital C for Christian because I am one, and also a mormon (not capital m cos it's a nick-name).

Sam