Miliband falls victim to latest Twitter phishing scam

Ed Miliband MP

It seems even the political elite cannot escape the latest Twitter phishing wave.

Ed Miliband MP, Minister for Energy and Climate Change, has apparently fallen victim to the Twitter "This You????" attacks, which has led to a large number of unsuspecting users to click on dangerous links from their feed and give away their login details.

Unfortunately for Mr Miliband this meant all of his 6,711 followers received a direct message from him saying: "Hhey, i've been having better sex and longer with this here" [sic] along with a malicious link.

The minster seems to have taken the attack well, tweeting earlier today: "Oh dear it seems like I've fallen victim to Twitter's latest 'phishing' scam." Using the opportunity to get people back onto his green agenda, he tweeted: "Now I've got your attention - I want your ideas for the manifesto."

However, the incident has again highlighted the need for social network users to be more aware of these dodgy scams.

In a blog post using the MP as an example, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said: "Miliband needs to do more than just tweet an explanation for his bizarre tweets he also needs to change his password, and think long and hard about whether he is using that same password on any other websites."

"You see, 33 per cent of people to admit to playing Russian Roulette with their identity by using the same password on every website they access. If Miliband makes that kind of mistake, then he has potentially opened up his email account, his eBay account, his PayPal and Amazon account... basically, his entire online life could be handed over to hackers."

"So, learn the lesson for yourself," Cluley concluded, "choose a strong and different password for every website."

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.