TMZ Music: MySpace HACKED!

MySpace has been touted as almost a Messiah to the music industry over the past year, allowing people the ability to share their favorite artists with friends, listen to bands they love and discover new bands that they may never have heard before.

Green Tea Monkeys

Green Tea Monkeys, an indie ska/punk/reggae band from Germany, hoped to tap into MySpace's potential to achieve the success of other once no-name bands like Hawthorn Heights, Hollywood Undead and even Jack White's new baby The Raconteurs -- all were able to capitalize on the social networking site in their rise to prominence.



But what they never thought they would have to do is apologize to their entire fan base for unauthorized racist bulletins post under the band's name. "For us as a little band, it's worse when our fans won't believe in us ... to have to show people that we're not talking sh*t and that they can still believe and trust in what we're saying" they say.

Over the past couple of months, a rash of hacking has taken over MySpace, the most popular Web site since, well, the Web. The scale of the hacks has the MySpace community up in arms and is prompting people to ask when MySpace is going to step up.

The hacks are occurring through the bulletin section of each individual's MySpace profile. The extent of the hack is unknown, but as any MySpace user can tell you, in order to post a bulletin -- whether real or counterfeit - you must have access to an individual's account. That suggests that any and all information that a person has stored within their profile, including personal e-mail addresses, passwords, and e-mails, could be accessible to hackers.

Bunner on MySpace.comThe counterfeit bulletins causing the biggest uproar are those containing defamatory racial remarks that would make the grand wizard of the KKK blush. It appears that the three most common racist posts are: "I'm Gonna Kill Y'all Ni**as," "F*ck All Y'all Ni**as!," and "Get Out of America You F*ckin Ni**as!"

Each of these appears in the bulletin section -- with the user's name attached as the author of the bulletin. That means that every single one of the user's "friends" receives this information in connection with the owner of the account, who is listed as the author. Horror stories run rampant about the extent to which people have had to defend their character under these circumstances.

There's no way to measure how long the racist impressions will resonate before users have the ability to apologize and set the record straight. But then should MySpace users have to apologize for something like this in the first place?

TMZ attempted to contact MySpace for comment. We were not successful.

Filed under: Music

Reader Comments

(Page 5 of 20)Previous 15 Comments | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments

61. So many of you are forgetting the issues:
1. It's not that racist remarks are being posted in bulletins; it's actually that hackers are getting into people's accounts and defaming their character, possibly costing them professional credibility and friends. If someone sent hateful e-mail from your accounts to all your friends, how would YOU be able to easily prove to those friends that it wasn't your fault? Some people only recall the negative words and have trouble getting past that. Look at Mel Gibson right now in the news- his career is in trouble because of leaked, previously-omitted pages of his DUI arrest report in which he spouts anti-Semitic speech. It's already out there, regardless of whether he really said those words. Now... imagine you're a start-up band, gaining a fan base until someone POSING as you puts down half your new groupies. I guarantee a chunk of those groupies would believe the hate bulletin over the apology.

2. Those who say MySpace is disgusting, evil, etc. are likewise saying the Internet as a whole is evil. Chat rooms have existed for at least 15 years, whether on the full Internet or local bulletin board systems run from an individual's home, in which you don't even need an ISP. Kids have always been at risk for predators, but now irresponsible, blame-shifting parents have a popular site at which to point a finger. It's OKAY to let your older children on there.... as long as you MONITOR their actions! Keep the computer in a public room! Firewall certain sites on certain computer user accounts! Have your own VERY BASIC MySpace account to keep access to theirs, or tell your child they can't have an account unless YOU have equal access to protect them from sickos! If the kid complains, tell them that if more parents don't act that way, then MySpace WILL continue to be targeted! But my point is that predators have always had a medium for stalking their prey... MySpace is just the most popular one at this moment. If your kid were in an AOL chat room and convinced to meet a 37-year-old man in a dark alley for "candy," would you sue AOL? NO! Watch your children's activities and BE A PARENT. Really, if your 14-year-old shows up on a page with her butt hanging out of her glitter jeans and showing off her curves, it's only your own damn fault. If your kid doesn't comply with your demands, take away their computer priviledges and watch their account so they're not accessing it from another location. They can use an encyclopedia and books for their homework.

The most popular places are always attacked the easiest, whether by hackers or horrible parents in denial of their lacking skills. Just keep an eye on your MySpace, be wary if your friends post bulletins that don't sound right, and don't be retardedly clicking links that pop up. Watch your kids, too. Geez, next some of you will be blaming the mall because your kid got abducted after you left them alone in the food court.

Posted at 6:52PM on Jul 31st 2006 by cheesygoodness

62. So many of you are forgetting the issues:
1. It's not that racist remarks are being posted in bulletins; it's actually that hackers are getting into people's accounts and defaming their character, possibly costing them professional credibility and friends. If someone sent hateful e-mail from your accounts to all your friends, how would YOU be able to easily prove to those friends that it wasn't your fault? Some people only recall the negative words and have trouble getting past that. Look at Mel Gibson right now in the news- his career is in trouble because of leaked, previously-omitted pages of his DUI arrest report in which he spouts anti-Semitic speech. It's already out there, regardless of whether he really said those words. Now... imagine you're a start-up band, gaining a fan base until someone POSING as you puts down half your new groupies. I guarantee a chunk of those groupies would believe the hate bulletin over the apology.

2. Those who say MySpace is disgusting, evil, etc. are likewise saying the Internet as a whole is evil. Chat rooms have existed for at least 15 years, whether on the full Internet or local bulletin board systems run from an individual's home, in which you don't even need an ISP. Kids have always been at risk for predators, but now irresponsible, blame-shifting parents have a popular site at which to point a finger. It's OKAY to let your older children on there.... as long as you MONITOR their actions! Keep the computer in a public room! Firewall certain sites on certain computer user accounts! Have your own VERY BASIC MySpace account to keep access to theirs, or tell your child they can't have an account unless YOU have equal access to protect them from sickos! If the kid complains, tell them that if more parents don't act that way, then MySpace WILL continue to be targeted! But my point is that predators have always had a medium for stalking their prey... MySpace is just the most popular one at this moment. If your kid were in an AOL chat room and convinced to meet a 37-year-old man in a dark alley for "candy," would you sue AOL? NO! Watch your children's activities and BE A PARENT. Really, if your 14-year-old shows up on a page with her butt hanging out of her glitter jeans and showing off her curves, it's only your own damn fault. If your kid doesn't comply with your demands, take away their computer priviledges and watch their account so they're not accessing it from another location. They can use an encyclopedia and books for their homework.

The most popular places are always attacked the easiest, whether by hackers or horrible parents in denial of their lacking skills. Just keep an eye on your MySpace, be wary if your friends post bulletins that don't sound right, and don't be retardedly clicking links that pop up. Watch your kids, too. Geez, next some of you will be blaming the mall because your kid got abducted after you left them alone in the food court.

Posted at 7:02PM on Jul 31st 2006 by cheesygoodness

63. Just be careful what sites you guve your myspace username and passwords to (i.e. pimpyourspace.com, or any other site that lets you modify your myspace profile.). I know this is true because my sister's account got hacked into and they posted a bulliten through it displaying exactly what the example above displays. Use caution.

Posted at 8:16PM on Jul 31st 2006 by Bambino

64. I can't believe everyone bitches so much about a free service. Pretty much the only thing on the web that doesn't ask you for a credit card #... Props to whoever (really) created myspace for not being a greedy bastard. How easy would it be to charge $9.95 a month for a myspace membership, and make a BILLION F*CKING DOLLARS INSTANTLY. And now that it's owned by faux news, you can expect to see things like that in the future. Sooner or later, we will all get messages asking us if we want to upgrade to a "MySpace Platinum" account for some ridiculous f*cking price, and then we can access the full range of myspace features!! pretty soon they will be charging per song, or requiring so many ads per page.. It won't take long for faux news to get antsy about all the money they aren't making off this deal. They will implement restrictions on the site, and then make you pay to get everything back. JUST LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE.
cheers yall

Posted at 1:59AM on Aug 2nd 2006 by Theism=Murder

65. Could this be what happened to Mel Gibson?

Posted at 9:10AM on Aug 2nd 2006 by Amoreena

66. As a hardcore myspacer, the glitches have been very frustrating, but hacking and posting faux bulletins can tarnish your rep. For up and coming artists, this is the downfall of your career before it's even taken off!
I knew this was gonna happen to myspace when Fox bought it. Damn Tom!

Posted at 1:03PM on Aug 2nd 2006 by momowilly

67. My account was hacked into, it posted that fuck yall ni**as one, and another one about my sexy pics. I changed my password and now i dont get them anymore.

Posted at 3:51PM on Aug 2nd 2006 by Sydney

68.
We've been driven crazy by what we thought was MySpace itslef trying to thwart our every attempt at promoting our band "Jackie and The Orangutans" until we figure out that it must be insider hacking of some sort.

This blog makes us even more sure about this and even more worried.

It's cyber terrorism if you ask me and it really pisses us off.

what can we all do about it to fight back?

Posted at 4:14PM on Aug 2nd 2006 by Jackie Ohm

69. Myspace is a very large website as this article has stated amongst people. It is popular amongst all age groups, and walks of life. The main problem with it right now is all of its glitches, and hackers. A lot of people will say that everyone is scared over nothing, but when their account is the one in danger they will freak and start being scared just like the others. It is totally wrong what those people are posting on people's sites as that person's personal bultein. It isn't what they are saying and could even ruin a friendship at first. sure we have the ablity to delete our bulteins, but what if the teens get grounded from the net, or the adults are away on business, or the particular person is unable to get on for long period of time... how are they supposed to delete the inappropriate bulteins in time? they arent. I hope that this article brings awarness to today's myspace users, it may take time, but it will.

Posted at 1:14AM on Aug 3rd 2006 by Megan

70. THIS explains all the vulgar and highly offensive rants I've had up on my blogs and bulletins! I knew it! Damn hackers!

Posted at 10:01AM on Aug 3rd 2006 by J.Remy

71. Okay, I received this today and I don't know who this person is or where she came from. I did go to the website but I didn't find anything useful for my proflie. I don't know if this is someone can be hacking into myspace or not, but maybe it is. I am sending the original email I hit reply so that I could get all the information for you. Thanks Jessie Reyes
----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Bonnie
Date: Aug 2, 2006 11:47 AM

Heya!

I found dis awesome website that lets u pimp ur myspace, it's hella cool
click here to get ur myspace pimped!

Posted at 3:13PM on Aug 3rd 2006 by Jessie Reyes

72. do u relize the mojority of ppl posting comments are indeed hackers.... i used to hack then i quit because i didnt want too screw my life up... all the hackers are doing it posting fake log in urls, which is quiet easy. if u know ur loged in, dont log in again.

the hackers that are doing this are breaking the hackers code of ethics.. most hackers hack acording to it.....

Posted at 4:46PM on Aug 3rd 2006 by Loren

73. OK so people hate myspace. get over it. for those of us who use it feel like our personal space had been violated and the fact that someone is doing god knows what with the information they have received scares me. granite i am only 15 and there isn't a whole lot that they can do. but those people who do have other things like bank accounts, other person sites, email, and what not could be hated for something they didn't post!! i am throughly outraged that someone is violating my personal space. and for those of you who say that anyone can by just looking at the page is right, but that is what we signed up for. not to have someone STEAL our information. federal crimes - theft, slander, identity theft. the list goes on and on. who cares about the myspace airtime, what about protecting its users like promised?!?! TOM, FIND IT AND FIX IT.

Posted at 5:36PM on Aug 3rd 2006 by Jen

74. Get your fact's strait before posting an article. Someone developed a basic trojan and is spreading pretty quick computer to computer by many different ways. Once it is installed on a users machine, it uses the connection already established to submit bulletings via http query strings. It doesnt need your username or pass if the session on your computer has already been logged in. Try installing some virus protection and fire the auther of this article for starting rumors.

Posted at 5:46PM on Aug 3rd 2006 by Sajon Nadjafinia

75. MySpace is the true BOOB TUBE of the new millenium....it is also the Babysitter / amateur psychoanalyst / clinic orderly for the chronically bored-friendless and
the disassociative.

Posted at 6:48PM on Aug 3rd 2006 by Ted

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