The Election Commission’s (EC) Twitter account was temporarily hacked into in the early hours this morning (March 22) before the intrusion was ultimately detected at noon.
Malaysiakini was alerted to the situation after a netizen complained that his own Twitter account was purportedly blocked by the EC after he raised the alarm to suspicious activity coming from the election body’s official account at 3am.
“I was awake past midnight actually. Because I turned on the notifications for EC’s official account, I noticed that the account started retweeting weird replies and tweets, nothing to do with the EC.
“Apparently, (they were) replies to the Agong’s princess, Tengku Jihan,” freelance journalist Norman Goh said told Malaysiakini.
According to Goh, the account, which goes by the Twitter handle @sprgovmy, had begun to retweet unrelated posts, including those specific to and by Tengku Puteri Raja Tengku Puteri Jihan Azizah 'Athiyatullah, daughter of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.
Goh said he was finally unblocked after noon today, when EC seemed to have reclaimed the account. However, other users have stated that their accounts remain blocked by the same account.
In a personal Twitter message sent to Goh at 12.48pm, sighted by Malaysiakini, the EC said: “There was a login attempt from a party we have no knowledge of.
“We have managed to change the current password.”
When contacted, the EC confirmed the hacking and said it would be conducting an internal probe.
“EC was informed by Goh on Sunday, March 22, at about 12pm, on the irregularity involving EC’s official Twitter account. Goh and several other EC Twitter account followers had been blocked by an individual who had not been identified.
“The EC has taken quick action to change the password to stop the hacking from continuing. The hacking attempt by an unknown individual was traced to late Saturday night (March 21).
“The EC will be lodging an official report to the MCMC as soon as internal investigations are complete,” said the EC corporate communications spokesperson to Malaysiakini.
It added that Goh and other affected accounts have been unblocked.
At time of writing, all recent posts by @sprgovmy have been removed, with the most recent post visible being a press statement by EC chairperson Azhar Azizan Harun last Feb 28. - Mkini
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