Havering Council’s X Account Hacked – Offensive Image Posted
Shock Hack Hits Havering’s Official X Feed
Havering Council was forced to pull its X (formerly Twitter) account offline after a bot hijacked the page in the early hours of January 9. The rogue post, featuring an inappropriate image, appeared before 4am, sparking outrage.
The Recorder spotted the shocking content and alerted the council quickly. By 7.24am, Havering confirmed it knew about the hack and was racing to fix the problem.
In a no-nonsense tweet, the council said: “This account has been hacked – we deeply apologise for the offensive post on here. We are working to address this urgently. Please use our website to contact us for any customer enquiries. Thank you.”
Council Takes Swift Action to Secure Account
Havering Council swiftly removed the offensive post and temporarily suspended its X account to block further attacks. A spokesperson revealed:
“We found that our X account had been hacked and an inappropriate post was reposted on the site. We believe this was done by a bot rather than an individual. We temporarily took the account down and deleted the post. We have ensured it is secure and protected and will continue to monitor the site. Sadly, we are in a world where all public bodies are subject to such attacks by malicious individuals and groups and we remain vigilant. In this case we were able to act quickly.”
Other Social Media Platforms Remain Unscathed
The council assured residents that its other social media channels were not compromised. For now, Havering urges the public to use its official website for enquiries while the X account is under lockdown.
