Hackers attacked Westminster Tuesday. They used the verified X account of British House of Commons leader Lucy Powell to spread a bogus token called the “House of Commons Coin(HCC)”.
Nearly 70,000 people followed the compromised account which tweeted an now deleted message that the HCC was “a digital currency driven by the community bringing the power of the people to the blockchain.”
Powell’s office quickly confirmed and blocked the account after Powell removed the postings, which included the House of Commons official logo.
The Labour Minister’s spokesperson told BBC News The account was secured quickly and the false posts were removed.
Decrypt The article has been updated to reflect any comments received from Lucy Powell or the House of Commons.
Hackers Target Public Figures
Hacking public figures is becoming a trend among cybercriminals to legitimize scams tokens.
Bad actors use trusted accounts to post flashy coins that are community-oriented, but they can be fabricated within hours. They then profit from a rush of uninformed purchases before the posts disappear.
In the past few months, several prominent accounts have been used to promote fake crypto projects.
In February, Argentine lawmaker José Luis Espert, a member of President Javier Milei’s party, also saw his account on X, formerly Twitter, compromised.
In a post, it was announced that “$LIBRA” V2 would be launched. It is described as “a project to boost the Argentinean economy.”
This timing was unusual, since it occurred just weeks after Milei had promoted the LIBRA token. That original token rose in value, before falling spectacularly and leaving many investors ruined.
Espert’s advisor and wife confirmed later that the account has been hijacked. In a video, the politician accused a coordinated attempt to destabilize government.
In February, the account of Leni “Robredo” Robredo, former vice-president in the Philippines was used to promote her political agenda. Solana.
Robredo’s hacked post claimed that she was in favor of a “fair launch” and she felt compelled to take action when she saw what she found on crypto Twitter.
Afterward, she posted on Facebook “Please ignore any posts I make while trying to take back control.”
These are only the latest examples of a long-running series of attacks, which rely on the authority and perceived credibility of political figures to manipulate public sentiment and drive investment into worthless tokens.
In July 2020, hackers accessed internal systems by compromising Twitter employees' accounts in a “coordinated social engineering attack,”, seizing control of some of the most influential accounts in America, including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and more.
Twitter messages were nearly identical, promising to multiply any Bitcoins sent to wallet addresses.
Hackers broke into a Twitter account that was used to solicit donations for a national Indian relief fund in September of 2020. Ethereum. Twitter confirmed that this breach had nothing to do with any genuine fundraising efforts. These tweets have been deleted.
In December 2021, just over a month later, Indian PM Narendra Modi’s Twitter account was hacked. A message stating that India adopted the new currency briefly appeared. Bitcoin The message had been removed and the account secured before it was disseminated as legal tender.
Image Credit
The main image is by Lauren Hurley/No. 10, Downing Street. This license was granted under CC BY NC 2.0.
