- MP for Chichester, Gillian Keegan’s Twitter account was hacked on 25 December 2022.
- Throughout the evening, her account was used to promote crypto by various prominent people.
- Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, previously advised MPs to be aware of the hacks.
Recently, 400 million Twitter accounts were hacked, including many prominent figures such as Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Continuing the chain of events, the UK Education Minister’s Twitter account was apparently hacked, the profile picture was changed to that of Elon Musk, and several promotional tweets were posted regarding cryptocurrency events.
Gillian Keegan, MP for Chichester, responded to a number of tweets on Christmas Day with links to websites promoting cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and DOGE.
Such an influx of tweets suggested that security had been compromised. By December 26, 2022, all references to Gillian in her Twitter name, photo, bio and banner have been removed.
In response to Musk’s tweet, her account said:
“Thank you for another great year! This is like Christmas. Don’t miss it guys!! BREAKING NEWS 4 Christmas.”
Such bizarre tweets began appearing shortly after 7.30pm on 25 December 2022 and continued throughout the evening and into the early hours of Boxing Day.
In November, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the Commons, advised MPs to update the security of their mobile phones by using multiple checks, deleting old messages and upgrading system software. The warning comes after the Russians allegedly hacked Liz Truss’s phone while she was Foreign Secretary.
Sir Hoyle’s letter to MPs included 10 safety tips and stated:
“You may not feel capable of doing everything on this list, but the more you do, the less likely your personal data and mobile phone will be compromised or the less harmful the consequences of being hacked.”
The British military’s YouTube and Twitter accounts were reportedly hacked in July, with posts promoting NFTs and a fake interview with Musk about cryptocurrency.
Elon Musk has been very vocal about his commitment to rooting out fake and malicious users on the social media platform.
The recent Twitter hack
Just one year ago, in November 2021, there was a Twitter data breach that affected 5.4 million users, as reported by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), and the very next day, the data of 400 million Twitter users was put for sale on the dark web, including many prominent figures.
To prove the authenticity of the data, the hackers released sample data from hacking forums containing usernames, email IDs, follower numbers and phone numbers (in some cases).
The hacker openly demanded that Elon Musk can pay 276 million dollars and buy back the data to avoid a 400 million fine that Twitter could receive due to this hack.
This may prove negative for Musk’s image as he faces the wrath of hundreds of employees who have either been removed or quit Twitter since its acquisition. Although, no matter what he faced during the time of SpaceX and PayPal, we can hope that this will all work out.
Steve Anderson is an Australian crypto enthusiast. He has been a specialist in management and trade for more than 5 years. Steve has worked as a crypto trader, he loves learning about decentralization, understanding the true potential of blockchain.