{"id":17407,"date":"2018-03-28T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T12:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/?p=17407"},"modified":"2022-04-28T08:52:25","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T12:52:25","slug":"april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\/","title":{"rendered":"April Fools&#8217; Day &#8211; 5 Harmless Pranks by Hackers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">April Fools\u2019 Day is a much-anticipated time for hackers who simply want to mess with someone\u2019s head without any malicious intent. While some hackers aim to scam unsuspecting people, some use their hacking abilities to help prevent these attacks. However, they occasionally they use their skills to prank someone for a quick laugh.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Read More: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-hackers-attack\/\"><b>Hackers Attack With Invasive New Mobile Virus<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are the 5 best harmless pranks conducted by hackers over the years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>A Prank from the Government<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dubbed \u201cOperation Cupcake,\u201d members of the British intelligence service MI6 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/geek-cetera\/the-11-funniest-hacker-attacks-1617998\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">once did the world some good<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with a prank that targeted terrorists who had nefarious intentions. They hacked a radical Muslim preacher\u2019s online magazine that included recipes on how to manufacture pipe bombs and replaced them with cupcake recipes from the Ellen DeGeneres show.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Do You Love AC\/DC?<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fans of the Australian rock giants AC\/DC were probably thrilled about this next one, although it probably got old after a while. A worm made its way to the control systems of nuclear research facilities in Iran and it did unexpected things like activate workstations at night and blast the famous band\u2019s 1990 classic \u201cThunderstruck\u201d at maximum decibels. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Blue Screen of Death\u2026 as a Screensaver<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everyone dreads the idea of coming face-to-face with the blue screen of death, which basically means your computer is in dire need of technical support. In some cases, it may even be fried for good. But just for fun, pranksters <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lifehacker.com\/373817\/top-10-harmless-geek-pranks\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">found a way to make light<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the blue screen of death by installing screensavers on their co-workers computers that displayed the blue screen of death when they were away, only to return and freak a bit before the prank was unveiled. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Co-opting a Computer<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another popular prank is a technique that can take over someone\u2019s computer briefly. By installing a VNC &#8212; a computer remote control protocol &#8212; on a computer and attaining its IP address, the prankster can control the \u201cvictim\u2019s\u201d mouse functionalities and move it around in front of their face to cause panic. Until with great relief, the joke is revealed, and it\u2019s no hard feelings, right? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>How the Lizard Squad Overtook Lenovo<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A group of hackers called the Lizard Squad performed plenty of hacks for the purpose of getting chuckles in 2014. One of their biggest scores was when they took down Lenovo\u2019s website and replaced it with a webcam feed of lackadaisical teenagers lounging around with the soundtrack of \u201cHigh School Musical\u201d playing in the background.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While we certainly don\u2019t condone these activities, since it\u2019s April Fools\u2019 Day, for one day a year we can admit that ethical hackers are allowed to have fun like the rest of us.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hackers can be fun people too. We\u2019ve covered everything from blasting AC\/DC to invoking a fake blue screen of death on co-workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4451],"tags":[259],"class_list":["post-17407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dfndr-company-news","tag-hackers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>April Fools&#039; Day - 5 Harmless Pranks by Hackers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ethical Hackers know how to do April Fools\u2019 Day right as they\u2019ve wreaked some lighthearted havoc over the years with these fun pranks.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"April Fools&#039; Day - 5 Harmless Pranks by Hackers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ethical Hackers know how to do April Fools\u2019 Day right as they\u2019ve wreaked some lighthearted havoc over the years with these fun pranks.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PSafe Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-28T12:00:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-28T12:52:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"PSafe Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"PSafe Newsroom\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1c3c9cd7f8f7ff5b8e8071d39226b99d\"},\"headline\":\"April Fools&#8217; Day &#8211; 5 Harmless Pranks by Hackers\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-28T12:00:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-28T12:52:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":465,\"keywords\":[\"hackers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"dfndr News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\\\/\",\"name\":\"April Fools' Day - 5 Harmless Pranks by Hackers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-28T12:00:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-28T12:52:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1c3c9cd7f8f7ff5b8e8071d39226b99d\"},\"description\":\"Ethical Hackers know how to do April Fools\u2019 Day right as they\u2019ve wreaked some lighthearted havoc over the years with these fun pranks.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"In\u00edcio\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"April Fools&#8217; Day &#8211; 5 Harmless Pranks by Hackers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"PSafe Blog\",\"description\":\"Articles and news about Mobile Security, Android, Apps, Social Media and Technology in general.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1c3c9cd7f8f7ff5b8e8071d39226b99d\",\"name\":\"PSafe Newsroom\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0ce470a17403045075d8cd48a742ebd97c085f6d510cfd605fb223ba3fad770b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0ce470a17403045075d8cd48a742ebd97c085f6d510cfd605fb223ba3fad770b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0ce470a17403045075d8cd48a742ebd97c085f6d510cfd605fb223ba3fad770b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"PSafe Newsroom\"},\"description\":\"The dfndr blog is an informative channel that presents exclusive content on security and privacy in the mobile and business world, with tips to keep users protected. Populated by a select group of expert reporters, the channel has a partnership with dfndr lab's security team. Together they bring you, first-notice news about attacks, scams, internet vulnerabilities, malware and everything affecting cybersecurity.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.psafe.com\\\/en\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/newsroom-psafe\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"April Fools' Day - 5 Harmless Pranks by Hackers","description":"Ethical Hackers know how to do April Fools\u2019 Day right as they\u2019ve wreaked some lighthearted havoc over the years with these fun pranks.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"April Fools' Day - 5 Harmless Pranks by Hackers","og_description":"Ethical Hackers know how to do April Fools\u2019 Day right as they\u2019ve wreaked some lighthearted havoc over the years with these fun pranks.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\/","og_site_name":"PSafe Blog","article_published_time":"2018-03-28T12:00:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-28T12:52:25+00:00","author":"PSafe Newsroom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":false,"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\/"},"author":{"name":"PSafe Newsroom","@id":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1c3c9cd7f8f7ff5b8e8071d39226b99d"},"headline":"April Fools&#8217; Day &#8211; 5 Harmless Pranks by Hackers","datePublished":"2018-03-28T12:00:24+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-28T12:52:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\/"},"wordCount":465,"keywords":["hackers"],"articleSection":["dfndr News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\/","url":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\/","name":"April Fools' Day - 5 Harmless Pranks by Hackers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-03-28T12:00:24+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-28T12:52:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1c3c9cd7f8f7ff5b8e8071d39226b99d"},"description":"Ethical Hackers know how to do April Fools\u2019 Day right as they\u2019ve wreaked some lighthearted havoc over the years with these fun pranks.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/april-fools-day-5-harmless-pranks-hackers-jokes\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"In\u00edcio","item":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"April Fools&#8217; Day &#8211; 5 Harmless Pranks by Hackers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/","name":"PSafe Blog","description":"Articles and news about Mobile Security, Android, Apps, Social Media and Technology in general.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1c3c9cd7f8f7ff5b8e8071d39226b99d","name":"PSafe Newsroom","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ce470a17403045075d8cd48a742ebd97c085f6d510cfd605fb223ba3fad770b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ce470a17403045075d8cd48a742ebd97c085f6d510cfd605fb223ba3fad770b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ce470a17403045075d8cd48a742ebd97c085f6d510cfd605fb223ba3fad770b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"PSafe Newsroom"},"description":"The dfndr blog is an informative channel that presents exclusive content on security and privacy in the mobile and business world, with tips to keep users protected. Populated by a select group of expert reporters, the channel has a partnership with dfndr lab's security team. Together they bring you, first-notice news about attacks, scams, internet vulnerabilities, malware and everything affecting cybersecurity.","url":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/author\/newsroom-psafe\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17638,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17407\/revisions\/17638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}