Hackers hijack Twitter accounts of Chavez critics
Over months, Venezuelan TV soap opera writer Leonardo Padron built a Twitter following of about 250,000 people by posting more than a dozen messages a day, many of them skewering President Hugo Chavez.
On Aug. 29, Padron issued a typical shot: "Chavez knows of the immense death toll that there is in this country, so why such indifference to the subject of insecurity?"
Three days later, however, the tweets picked a new target: Padron himself. "In no way have I contributed to combat racism, discrimination, cultural alienation," one note read. "My soap operas feed these evils in our society." Padron had fallen victim to an unknown hacker or group of hackers who have hijacked the accounts of at least nine well-known Chavez critics, posting curse-filled insults, threats and slogans such as "Long live Chavez."