Hack sees offensive notifications sent to Fast Company Apple News followers

(Image credit: Apple)

Followers of Fast Company via Apple News received two offensive push notifications overnight following the hacking of the publisher's website. Apple subsequently disabled the Fast Company Apple News channel and the company's website was also taken offline as a precaution.

Fast Company confirmed the hack, saying that "two obscene and racist push notifications were sent about a minute apart."

Push Hush

In a pair of tweets to the Fast Company Twitter account, the outfit confirmed that it had "suspended the [Apple News] feed & shutdown FastCompany.com until we are certain the situation has been resolved."

We are investigating the situation and have suspended the feed & shutdown https://t.co/U9iS8QOhkW until we are certain the situation has been resolved.September 28, 2022

The Apple News Twitter account also tweeted to confirm that the Fast Company channel had been disabled, likely in an attempt to try and prevent other messages from being sent while the hack was brought under control.

An incredibly offensive alert was sent by Fast Company, which has been hacked. Apple News has disabled their channel.September 28, 2022

According to a report by The Verge, a post published to the Fast Company website before it was taken down confirmed that the hack was carried out by "postpixel," with explanations on how the hack was carried out also published. "The message claims they got in thanks to a password that was shared across many accounts, including an administrator," The Verge reports.

It's also thought that the hackers may have gained access to information on Fast Company staffers via the hack, with employee records and even draft posts thought to be part of a dossier that will be leaked in the future.

While it isn't known just how many people received the offensive push notifications, it's likely that they went out to anyone who followed the Fast Company channel via the Apple News app on their iPhone, iPad, or Mac. That would suggest the number was large, but we might find out more as investigations into the incident continue.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.