The Twitter account of the United Kingdom’s education secretary Gillian Keegan, which is the MP for Chichester, has been hacked on Christmas Day. The hackers infiltrated the cabinet minister’s account, replying to several tweets with links that advertise certain cryptocurrencies including the doggy dogecoin.

Not just that, but the profile’s name, biography banner and even photograph have been changed. The account cyberpunks replied to tweets of renowned figures, including YouTube star MrBeast and the Twitter owner himself, Elon Musk. One tweet reply to Musk read “Thank you for another great year! This feels a lot like Christmas. Don’t miss guys!! BREAKING NEWS 4 Christmas”.

This isn’t the first instance where the Twitter accounts of British officials were hacked. In July, the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the British Army were hacked. Among the endeavors of the Musk-run Twitter is to trump false and spam activity on the platform, stressing the importance of the free flow of accurate information on the popular social media platform.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/26/hack-of-twitter-uk-education-secretary-gillian-keegan-changes-profile-picture-elon-musk 

https://news.sky.com/story/gillian-keegans-twitter-account-changes-picture-to-elon-musk-and-promotes-crypto-in-apparent-hack-12774430

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1713895/Education-Secretary-Gillian-Keegan-Twitter-hacked-account-post-tweet-crypto