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BuzzFeed vandalized by hacking group after exposing alleged member

A number of BuzzFeed posts were vandalized by hackers this morning in apparent retaliation for a story that claimed to expose a member of their group. The hacking group, which goes by OurMine, changed the titles of several BuzzFeed posts to read “Hacked by OurMine” and replaced the body of some stories with a note not to “share fake news about us again.”

The hackers also claimed to have BuzzFeed’s “database” and threatened to publish it. OurMine didn’t state what type of information the alleged database contained.

OurMine has been behind a number of high-profile hacks

The hack comes the morning after BuzzFeed ran a story (mirrored here) on OurMine, identifying a teenager who appeared to be a member of the group. OurMine initially denied BuzzFeed’s report in a statement claiming that the person was “just a fan” of their hacking. Today’s attack is an odd way of maintaining its denial.

OurMine has taken responsibility for a number of prominent social media hacks in recent months, including taking control of accounts from the CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter. It also broke into Variety’s website earlier this year, sending out an email to its newsletter subscribers saying that OurMine was "testing your security."

BuzzFeed took down the vandalized pages within minutes. The site now says it’s “working to restore” the articles, including the original report on OurMine.