A cabinet minister’s Twitter account began promoting Elon Musk and cryptocurrency after apparently being hacked.
Education secretary Gillian Keegan’s account was targeted on Christmas Day.
Her avatar was replaced by the same one used on Musk’s own Twitter account.
Meanwhile, her account also posted a series of memes promoting dogecoin, a form of cryptocurrency once backed by the billionaire Twitter boss.
It appears that Keegan’s account was taken over at around 7.30pm and began with a reply to the real Elon Musk’s Twitter account.
Scores of dogecoin-related tweets were then posted from Keegan’s account, which had still not returned to normal by Boxing Day morning.
The ease with which a cabinet minister’s Twitter account can be hacked will be concerning for security chiefs.
Just last month, Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle warned MPs to drastically ramp up security on their mobile phones as they are being targeted by “hostile states”.
He issued them with detailed advice from the National Cyber Security Centre [NCSC] on how to safeguard phones from a “determined nation state attacker”.
The advice includes not using mobile phones for sensitive conversations or even having them in the room in case they are being listened to.
It comes after it was revealed Liz Truss’s phone was hacked by Russia when she was serving as foreign secretary.