Hacker targets Minister Lucy Powell’s X account to promote crypto scam
Government minister Lucy Powell’s X account has been hacked to promote a scam “House of Commons” cryptocurrency.
A string of now deleted posts on the House of Commons leader’s account described the “$HCC” coin as “a community-driven digital currency bringing people’s power to the blockchain”.
The MP’s office confirmed her account was hacked on Tuesday morning and said “steps were taken quickly to secure the account and remove misleading posts”.
Other public figures with a large number of followers who have been targeted in a similar way by online hackers recently include BBC journalist Nick Robinson.
Some of the posts from Powell’s account, which is verified by the platform and mentions her cabinet position in the bio, included an image of the House of Commons logo.
The MP for Manchester Central, who has nearly 70,000 followers on X, has been leader of the House of Commons since Labour won power last summer.
The role is responsible for planning and supervising the government’s legislative programme, while also upholding the rights of backbench MPs.
Taking over X accounts to advertise scam crypto coins is a common method used by cyber criminals.
Fraudsters often take over accounts using phishing emails – scam emails containing links to websites that either access systems or trick users into sharing their passwords. Passwords can be obtained by using data breaches or leaked information. The hacking of Powell’s account is an example of “pump-and-dump”. Luke Nolan, senior research associate for CoinShares, a digital asset company, described it as a case of “pump and dump”. This is where the creators of the cryptocoin will inflate the value of the coin to make it more valuable, then get other investors to invest and sell the majority of the coin to gain profit. However, the coin remains worthless. “UK Parliament takes cyber security extremely seriously,” said a spokesman for the House of Commons. “
Action fraud said that there would be a rise of social and email accounts getting hacked by 2024. They received 35,343 reports. It recommends using 3-word passwords and 2-step verification to protect your accounts. Robinson, the BBC Radio 4 Today presenter, claimed that his X account had been hacked earlier this year after he mistakenly clicked on an email he thought was sent by the social media platform.
Post claimed on his account that he was launching “$Today”, a cryptocurrency.
