As November 5 dawned in European countries, those celebrating Guy Fawkes day (ahem, Anonymous) began dropping webistes like flies. Multiple NBC websites were hacked including the NBC mobile landing page, Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Fallon’s page, Jay Leno pages, and NBC Sports Rotoworld. Pages were replaced with various incarnations including a nice red on black page with a starry background and the message, “Hacked by Pyknic – Remember, Remember the fifth of November”. The web pages also included scrolling text “The gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot” (referring to the failure of the “Gunpowder Plot” to blow up Parliament) and a bit of hacker music playing in the background.
Here’s the full text left by Pyknic:
“REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER, THE GUNPOWDER TREASON AND PLOT. I KNOW OF NO REASON WHY THE GUNPOWDER TREASON SHOULD EVER BE FORGOT. REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER, THE GUNPOWDER TREASON AND PLOT. I KNOW OF NO REASON WHY THE GUNPOWDER TREASON SHOULD EVER BE FORGOT. REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER, THE GUNPOWDER TREASON AND PLOT. I KNOW OF NO REASON WHY THE GUNPOWDER TREASON SHOULD EVER BE FORGOT. REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER, THE GUNPOWDER TREASON AND PLOT. I KNOW OF NO REASON WHY THE GUNPOWDER TREASON SHOULD EVER BE FORGOT.
GREETZ TO ODAY, BRUT4L & S4VAGE
FUCK THE FEDS, 419 IS JUST A GAME~~
USER INFO – EXPOSED
PASSWORDS – DUMPED”
NBC quickly put the sites back online only to have them revert to the hacked format within minutes. By late afternoon, the sites appeared to have been returned to normal.
Other sites hacked included Lady Gaga’s site, GagaDaily.