Hackers hijack Apple speech with prank announcements

Hackers have made a spoof announcement that Apple chairman Steve Jobs has died.

Hijacking a web feed of the Macworld 2009 conference, the hackers posted a message that said ‘Steve Jobs just died' during a speech given by Phil Schiller, senior vice president of marketing at Apple.

A few moments later another message appeared, stating ‘Retraction on Steve Jobs comment ... we don't know how that got in our feed. Steve did not die'.

This was followed sooner after with another message that said ‘Oh wait, sorry, Steve did die. Our condolences'. The hackers were found to have been affiliated with a website called 4Chan, who have pulled pranks on the likes of the Church of Scientology and the breach of a Yahoo email account belonging to vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

An item on Macrumors.com said: “Our MacRumorsLive keynote coverage was hacked today, inserting inappropriate content into the text and photo feeds. We apologise for the inconvenience and are working to restore our services."

Steve Jobs clarified persistent rumours about his health last week saying that he is suffering from health problems caused by a hormone imbalance.