Tory minister’s Twitter account hijacked by crypto fraudsters

Fake ‘special giveaway’ of cryptocurrency promoted to Chichester MP’s 32,000 followers

The education secretary’s Twitter account was hacked on Christmas Day to promote the joke cryptocurrency dogecoin, which was famously backed by Elon Musk.

More than 12 hours after the hack, Gillian Keegan’s profile picture remained an image of Tesla founder and new Twitter chief executive Elon Musk, dressed in a costume of leather armour dubbed the “Devil’s Champion”.

The Conservative minister’s account appears to have been hacked at around 7.30pm, after which point it began promoting a fake “special giveaway” of dogecoin – supposedly being hosted by Musk’s companies – to the Chichester MP’s 28,000 followers.