Threat Management

WSJ gets a slice of PewDiePie

The Wall Street Journal was hacked and had a page defaced by the apparent fans of the online personality PewDiePie.

The defaced page contained sponsored content, but was altered to show an apology by the Journal to Felix Kjellberg who runs the PewDiePie YouTube channel. The page was taken down, but a copy has been stored on The Internet Archive.

The exact reason for the hack is not known, but The Verge noted the PewDiePie’s fans have had a running feud with the business newspaper since it ran an investigatory story into his YouTube channel. The Journal told The Verge it was aware of the attack and is investigating.

This is not the first time hackers have come out in support for Kjellberg. In late November a hacker has forced thousands of internet-connected printers to spit out messages in support of Swedish video game commentator and YouTube star PewDiePie. The prankster said he (or she) is doing it to raise cybersecurity awareness, according to a BBC report, and claims he could even cause physical damage to the printers by repeatedly writing data to their chips until they fry.

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