The Harvard Crimson's site targeted in apparent hack

The Harvard Crimson, Harvard University's student newspaper, was hacked earlier today and all signs point to The Harvard Lampoon, an undergraduate humor publication, as the source of the breach.

The Crimson's homepage was plastered on Thursday with articles targeting Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg, who dropped out of Harvard 12 years ago, spoke at the University's commencement today. 

In a phone interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Lampoon writer and rising Harvard junior Liana Spiro said this morning it became "very very clear that The Crimson really is not very secure, not very trustworthy, [and] maybe the term 'fake news' is appropriate.'"

Spiro then left the call for a moment to confer with colleagues at the Lampoon, who were laughing in the background of the call, "to see if we're taking responsibility for [the hacking]."

Joke headlines on the Crimson's site included "FLYBY: 10 Websites that Merk Zuckerbook Stole From the Water Sports Boys" and "Mark Zoinkerberg at it again."

"So we’re not officially taking responsibility for it," Spiro said when she returned, "but it’s, like, pretty clear that it was a pretty cool group of college kids that are probably on a humor magazine, but I'm not going to officially say that it was us."

Spiro then detailed the history of the rivalry between the Lampoon and the Crimson, most recently in late July 2015, when the Lampoon crafted a fake Crimson endorsement of Donald Trump for President. 

"There’s a big history of pranks, a big history of the Crimson being pranked, of the Lampoon pranking the Crimson and basically of The Crimson looking really dumb," Spiro said.

“So even though of course we didn’t hack the Crimson, and we would never ever do something like that,” she added, “we just feel like this is the right time for us to step up and remind the student body of Harvard and the world at large that the Crimson does suck and is very lame.”

"Earlier today, The Harvard Crimson’s website was altered by an unauthorized user," the Crimson's president Derek Choi said in a statement. "We are currently working to repair the breach. We regret any inconvenience to our users and look forward to the rest of Commencement."

Choi has not responded to further request for comment.