The UK education secretary's Twitter account appears to have been hacked as Elon Musk's image was changed to the profile photo, and multiple tweets promoting a crypto event were posted.
The Chichester MP Gillian Keegan's Twitter account responded to several tweets on Christmas Day with links to a website that promoted cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and dogecoin, reported first by The Guardian.
(Photo : NIKLAS HALLE'N/AFP via Getty Images)
Britain's Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan arrives the attend the first cabinet meeting under the new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak in 10 Downing Street in central London on October 26, 2022.
"Don't let it get away!"
A flurry of tweets from the account on Sunday night suggested that the security had been breached. By Monday, there was no longer any mention of Keegan in her Twitter name, biography, picture, or banner.
"Don't let it get away! "Keegan's account tweeted in response to MrBeast. The tweet had a link that appeared to promote a "giveaway" for the "crypto community.
"Thank you for another great year! This feels a lot like Christmas. Don't miss guys!! BREAKING NEWS 4 Christmas," the account replied to a tweet by Musk.
Initially created as a joke in 2013, the cryptocurrency saw a huge increase in value earlier this year when Musk pushed it by claiming it could be used to purchase Tesla products.
On Christmas Eve, the tweets on Keegan's account started to appear at 7.30 p.m. and continued through the night and into the early hours of Dec. 25.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker of the Commons, wrote to lawmakers last month to urge them to increase mobile phone security by using multi-factor authentication, as well as to update software and erase outdated texts, according to The Guardian's report.
The warning followed reports that Russians had hacked Liz Truss' phone during the summer of 2016, while she was serving as foreign secretary.
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Crypto Hacks
According to reports, the British army's Twitter and YouTube accounts were also hacked in July. Posts hawking non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, and an alleged interview with Elon Musk discussing about cryptos.
The reason why there are so many cryptocurrencies and NFT scams online nowadays is that so many individuals use digital currency for savings, investments, and daily needs.
Elon Musk is involved in one of the most well-known cryptocurrency frauds, and he has already said that Twitter is "broken" since it has allowed so many scams to use his name.
The scam is not just on Twitter; it may also be found on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms. In fact, it has used prominent tech figures such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, and of course Musk.
The FTC reports that the number of cryptocurrency frauds has climbed by 12 times in 2021 compared to its data in 2020, which has also sharply increased financial losses by roughly 1,000%.
Musk has previously been outspoken about his goal to purge the social media network of fake and spam users after taking the Twitter reign.
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