( CNN ) -- FoxNews.com alerted the Secret Service on Monday about the apparent hacking of its Twitter feed for political news , after the feed was used to falsely report that President Obama was killed . Jeff Misenti , Fox News Digital 's vice president and general manager , said in a statement that the website has also requested `` a detailed investigation from Twitter about how this occurred , and measures to prevent future unauthorized access into FoxNews.com accounts . '' Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie said Monday that his agency `` will be investigating the matter and will conduct the appropriate follow up . '' The false tweets were taken down from the site after being up for hours . One of the tweets from @ FoxNewsPolitics said Obama was `` shot twice at a Ross ' restaurant in Iowa while campaigning . RIP Obama , best regards to the Obama family . '' `` We wish @ joebiden the best of luck as our new President of the United States . In such a time of madness , there 's light at the end of tunnel , '' the last in the series of tweets said later . An article on FoxNews.com confirmed the hack . `` Hackers sent out several malicious and false tweets claiming that President Obama had been assassinated , '' it said . `` Those reports are incorrect , of course , and the president is spending the July 4 holiday with his family . `` The hacking is being investigated , and FoxNews.com regrets any distress the false tweets may have created . '' But six tweets related to the fake news remained on the Fox News Politics twitter feed hours after the apology was posted . Later , Fox News announced the tweets were removed . One of the false messages said , `` It 's a sad 4th of July ... The shooter will be found . '' That message encouraged Twitter users to repost the message on their own Twitter accounts , which would spread the fake news . Several users did just that . The tweets generated headlines around the world , as well as criticism and mockery on Twitter , with firebrand liberal TV host Keith Olbermann frantically tweeting to many individual Twitter users that Obama is fine . He asked Twitter users not to re-post the messages . The first of the false tweets about Obama was posted about 2 a.m . ET . The Twitter messages asserting that Obama had been attacked came after a message that said , `` Just regained full access to our Twitter and email . Happy 4th . '' A student journalist interviewed someone claiming to be a representative of the hackers shortly before the Obama tweets were posted . Adam Peck of Stony Brook University 's Think magazine reported that the hackers , calling themselves the Script Kiddies , were an offshoot of the hacker group Anonymous . `` Without groups like Anonymous , what is there to prevent corruption ? '' he quoted the representative as saying . Peck interviewed the representative via instant message , contacting an account he said they used to send out the tweets and later deleted . He said they had posted several innocuous fake messages before sending the Obama tweets , then deleted them . He said he could not confirm that the person he interviewed was really one of the hackers but `` firmly '' believed it , based on the link between fake posts on Twitter and the instant message account . The instant message address he gave to CNN for the hackers was offline Monday morning . The @ FoxNewsPolitics Twitter account had 34,566 followers Monday morning but by afternoon had more than 37,000 . Twitter spokeswoman Jodi Olsen said the company did not comment on individual accounts , declining to answer questions about whether @ FoxNewsPolitics had been hacked or why the account of the alleged hackers was suspended . Hours later , the San Francisco-based technology company issued a statement saying Fox News has identified that it was first compromised in another way , which in turn allowed for the alleged perpetrators to access the network 's Twitter account . `` While Twitter does monitor accounts for brute-force login attempts and similar methods of attack , we 're unable to anticipate compromises that take place due to offsite behavior , '' Twitter spokesman Matt Graves said in its statement . CNN 's Richard Allen Greene contributed to this report .
NEW : Twitter says the Fox News ' hack was due to `` offsite behavior '' it would n't monitor . The Secret Service will investigate the matter , its spokesman says . The false tweet said the president was killed .