New York Post's mobile news alerts fall victim to a hack

If you're a hacker looking to grab attention by attacking a news outlet, what do you do? Deface their website? Take control of their social media accounts? Those are old hat -- apparently, you compromise the company's mobile app. An unknown party hijacked the New York Post app's push notification system on the night of April 1st, sending a flurry of alerts that were clearly meant as a protest against President Trump. The perpetrator left precious few clues as to their identity, but they're cultured -- they signed off with the ancient word "selah" (used in the Bible to encourage pause and reflection), and even borrowed lyrics from Nirvana's song "Come As You Are."

The Post regained control not long afterward, but didn't provide details at the time beyond saying that it was "working to resolve the issue." We've asked the publication for comment and will let you know if it can shed more light on the situation.

By itself, this incident was relatively harmless. It didn't do any lasting damage, and anyone could tell that the notifications were bogus. However, the attack is a not-so-friendly reminder to news outlets that they need to secure their apps just as thoroughly as anything else. A less benign intruder could easily have pushed plausible-sounding alerts that sowed confusion.