While breaches at media companies are not unheard of, the notification was one of the biggest breaches in Apple’s “walled garden” of memory. There was no indication that user safety was compromised beyond the disturbing wording.
“Fast Company’s Apple News account was hacked on Tuesday night. Two obscene and racist push notifications were sent about a minute apart,” the magazine said by email. “The posts are despicable and do not match Fast Company content. We are investigating the situation and have suspended the feed and closed FastCompany.com until we are certain the situation has been resolved.
An Apple spokesperson pointed to a tweet from Apple News that read, “An incredibly offensive alert was sent by Fast Company, which was hacked. Apple News has deactivated their channel.
An incredibly offensive alert was sent by Fast Company, which was hacked. Apple News has deactivated its channel.
—Apple News (@AppleNews) September 28, 2022
While the magazine’s site was defaced, an article labeled sponsored content gave hackers a description of how the break-in happened.
This account indicated that the group had entered the company’s WordPress program and found the keys to functions, including the Apple News programming interface.
