NFL erroneously tweets about commissioner’s death after apparent breach

The National Football League’s Twitter account was apparently hacked on Tuesday afternoon when it posted false news that Commissioner Roger Goodell had died. 

The tweet, and subsequent others, has since been deleted. A spokesman said the account was hacked and the commissioner is fine. 

Hackers gaining unauthorized access to high-profile social media accounts has become a common phenomenon in the past few years. Individuals such as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have fallen victim, as well as the government’s U.S. Central Command account. 

After the Zuckerberg news, Twitter reminded users to use two-step verification for their accounts. 

The initial tweets, which have since been deleted, are below: 

[[{“fid”:”115600″,”view_mode”:”original_image”,”fields”:{“format”:”original_image”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:””,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:””,”field_url[und][0][value]”:””,”field_folder[und]”:”1″,”field_free_html[und][0][value]”:””,”field_free_html[und][0][format]”:”full_html”,”style”:””},”type”:”media”,”attributes”:{}}]]

 After the initial tweet was deleted, the person used the NFL account to comment on the buzz it had generated. 

[[{“fid”:”115601″,”view_mode”:”original_image”,”fields”:{“format”:”original_image”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:””,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:””,”field_url[und][0][value]”:””,”field_folder[und]”:”1″,”field_free_html[und][0][value]”:””,”field_free_html[und][0][format]”:”full_html”,”style”:””},”type”:”media”,”attributes”:{}}]]