Hackers infiltrate DP William Ruto’s Twitter account

Deputy President William Ruto's Twitter account was Friday evening infiltrated by hacker group Anonymous Kenya. This comes five days after the same grouped hacked into the KDF account.

What you need to know:

  • The group alleges that it has also infiltrated into other government online platforms.
  • The group actively tweeted on Mr Ruto’s Twitter timeline listing all the government websites it had infiltrated.
  • The hacker published a phone number alleged to be that of the Deputy President.

The hacker group Anonymous Kenya Friday evening infiltrated and took over Deputy President William Ruto’s Twitter account.

The group alleged that it had also infiltrated the Immigration and Registration of Person’s and the newly adopted government financial management information system (IFMIS) websites.

The group actively tweeted on Mr Ruto’s Twitter timeline listing all the government websites it had infiltrated.

“Immigration and Registration of Persons hacked", read one tweet on Ruto’s timeline.

The hacker, tweeting under @Anon_oxo3, gained access into Mr Ruto’s verified Twitter account and published a phone number alleged to be that of the Deputy President.

Earlier on Monday, the group infiltrated Kenya Defence Force's (KDF) spokesperson Major Emmanuel Chirchir’s account and left a series of vulgar tweets.

The official KDF account was also hacked into in the Monday incident.

The group seems to be targeting government and senior government officials’ social media platforms such as websites and Twitter accounts for cyber-attacks.

Besides hacking Mr Chirchir’s account twice, the group has also defaced the National Environment Trust Fund website which is under the Ministry of Environment.

These cyber-attacks have put Kenya’s cyber security readiness on the spotlight as the government adopts e-governance for service delivery.

The group is wreaking online havoc and fear as it seems bent on systematic disruption of government online activities.

IT expert Mr William Makatiani, speaking to Daily Nation earlier, warned that Kenya would witness more cyber-attacks as it adopts IT and puts more data online.

To keep hackers at bay, Daily Nation’s IT blogger John Walubengo recommends that strong passwords ought to be acquired for every account noting that weak passwords make it easy for hackers to infiltrate user accounts.

Mr Walubengo further recommends that Internet users be wary of online promotions which promise users that they would win merchandise if they clicked on a link.

The links end up opening computer hardware to viruses that hackers use to monitor keyboard activity and consequently gain access to passwords.