Tory ministers’ Twitter account hacked by crypto crooks

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The education secretaries’ Twitter account was hacked on Christmas Day to promote the dogecoin cryptocurrency joke, which was notoriously backed by Elon Musk.

More than 12 hours after the hack, Gillian Keegans’ profile picture remained of Tesla founder and new Twitter chief executive Elon Musk dressed in a leather armor suit dubbed the Devils Champion.

The Tory ministers’ account appears to have been hacked at around 7.30pm after which he began promoting a special fake dogecoin giveaway allegedly hosted by Musks companies to the Chichester MPs’ 28,000 subscribers.

The breach will affect security officials and comes just weeks after Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle gave MPs new advice on how to protect their mobile phones, which he said were a potential gold mine for hostile states.

His warning that parliamentarians were being targeted came as it was reported that Liz Truss’ mobile phone had been hacked by alleged Russian agents when he was Foreign Secretary, during his successful bid this summer to win the keys to Downing Street.

Hackers targeting Ms Truss allegedly gained access to sensitive information, including discussions with foreign officials about the war in Ukraine and details of arms deliveries.

Earlier this year, researchers from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto revealed that powerful spyware, used by hackers to spy on communications and steal data, was found on a device in Downing Street.

They said the notorious Pegasus Trojan appears to have been used to target both the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in cyberattacks apparently originating in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United Arab Emirates, respectively. from India, Cyprus and Jordan.

When Ms Keegans’ account was hacked, posts promoting dogecoin had been deleted early Monday morning. Just before 11am, Ms Keegans’ Twitter bio was also deleted, Musk’s image removed and his name replaced with a period.

Gillian Keegans’ profile picture remained an image of Elon Musk until shortly before 11 a.m.

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Dogecoin was originally launched as a joke in 2013, using bitcoin-based technology and branded using the famous meme of a Shiba Inu dog. The value of the cryptocurrency soared more than 18,000% from a base of $0.004 last year after Musk, who adopted a Shiba Inu puppy, began promoting it.

From time to time, I make jokes about dogecoin, but they’re really just jokes, the Tesla founder said last February.

But fate loves irony… The most entertaining outcome is often the most likely and arguably the most entertaining outcome, and the most ironic outcome, would be dogecoin becoming Earth’s currency in the future. .

The Independent has approached Ms Keegan for comment.

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