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Senator Mike Sonko’s Twitter account hacked


Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko is the latest victim of cybercrime after his official twitter account @MikeSonko was hacked by the anonymous group.

The flamboyant senator, who prides himself  a good following on social media, announced the hacking incident on Sunday via his Facebook page.

“Kindly ignore all tweets coming from my twitter account..It was hacked yesterday am doing all I can to get it back..Sorry for any inconvenience.”

The account was taken over by the hackers on Sunday evening, with the first unusual tweet stating that the senator’s twitter account had been hacked by anonymous.

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KIMAIYO RESIGN

Subsequent tweets called for the resignation of Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo and Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku.

The hackers threatened to publish direct messages in the senator’s account if users retweeted them a thousand times, “1000 retweets to leak Nairobi County Senator @MikeSonko DM’s.”

The anonymous group has in the past been linked to the hacking of the Kenya Defense Forces Twitter account, as well as that of its former spokesperson Major Emmanuel Chirchir, in July.

The same group also hacked Deputy President William Ruto’s Twitter account and also defaced three government websites; Integrated Financial Management Information System of Kenya, Immigration Ministry and Reforms Kenya.

And in January 2012, an Indonesian hacker known as direxer took down 103 government of Kenya websites in one night.

The government’s digital communication department then announced that they had learnt a lot from the hackings and would secure all government websites and have them managed from a central office.

Further afield, in April 2013, hackers took over the Twitter handle of trusted news organization, AP, and tweeted that two explosions had hit the White House. This sent the New York Stocks Exchange into a free fall, with the Dow Jones falling by 143 points.