Canadian Senator Amina Gerba's Twitter account hacked, raising security concerns for politicians' social media integrity. (IT World Canada)
Canadian Senator Amina Gerba's office has acknowledged that her account on the social media platform X/Twitter was compromised earlier this week due to hacking activities.
The confirmation came through Walter Calderon, Senator Gerba's executive assistant, during a telephone conversation on Wednesday. The hack was initially revealed on Tuesday by MalwareHunterTeam, a group specializing in ransomware, catering to IT teams and security researchers.
The hacker had manipulated Gerba's account, renaming it as "LFG" and utilizing her followers to promote a scam, as reported by MalwareHunterTeam. However, as of later this morning, the account and its content were successfully restored.
Calderon mentioned that Gerba became aware of the issue on Tuesday when she discovered she couldn't access her account. She attempted to log in using her password, only to find out that her email wasn't associated with the account anymore.
Following this discovery, Gerba, who initially set up the account to showcase her work as a Senator, promptly informed the federal government's IT department, Calderon added. At the time of Calderon's interview with IT World Canada, he was not aware that the account had been recovered.
There is uncertainty regarding whether Gerba had implemented multifactor authentication to enhance login security, as Calderon stated he did not have that information.
Appointed to the Senate in 2021 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Gerba serves as an independent member. She actively participates in committees such as the Senate Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee, the Human Rights Committee, as well as engaging significantly in the Parliamentary Black Caucus and Senators for Climate Solutions.
This incident isn't the first instance of a Canadian parliamentarian's social media account being compromised. In 2019, Senator Linda Frum's Twitter account was hacked, leading to the posting of racial slurs and personal information, including her driver's license, before her access was restored. Similarly, in 2018, Conservative Senator Don Plett's Twitter account was briefly taken over. Concurrently, Conservative MP Peter Ken reported being locked out of his Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Beyond Canada, instances of social media account breaches involving politicians are not unprecedented. Senator Joe Manchin's accounts were hacked in the U.S. in 2018, while in 2012, Senator Chuck Grassley's Twitter account was compromised.
Potential attackers targeting politicians' social media accounts vary from hacktivists to foreign entities.
In response to such breaches, X/Twitter advises users to enhance their account security by utilizing unique strong passwords, activating two-factor authentication, confirming reset password requests via email and phone number, exercising caution with suspicious links, refraining from sharing login credentials with third parties promising follower boosts or financial gains, and ensuring regular software updates and antivirus software to safeguard against cyber threats.
