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KDF ‘liberates’ its hacked Twitter account

In a tweet on his now liberated account Chirchir says they have the digital arm of the Presidential Strategic Communications Unit to thank for the restoration/FILE

In a tweet on his now liberated account Chirchir says they have the digital arm of the Presidential Strategic Communications Unit to thank for the restoration/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 21 – The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) Twitter account which had been under attack from hackers has been restored after more than 12hours.

KDF’s Liaison Officer Major Emmanuel Chirchir whose account was also hacked, says they have managed to recapture the KDF and his Twitter accounts from the hackers.

In a tweet on his now liberated account Chirchir says they had the digital arm of the Presidential Strategic Communications Unit to thank for the restoration.

Chirchir has also removed the tweets the hackers who identified themselves as the Anonymous Group posted on his timeline.

Those on the KDF however remain with the last post being over six hours ago.

KDF Spokesman Bogita Ongeri earlier told Capital FM that they are working with the police to apprehend the hackers whom they believe to be locals.

“We appreciate @PSCU_Digital for recovering our accounts,” he tweeted after pulling down the tweets sent by the hackers @Anon_0x03.

As of 6pm on Monday however, the tweets posted by the hackers over a period of 12 hours beginning at about midnight were still in place with the last tweet being:

“Apologies but we cannot follow everyone back through fear of repetitive strain injury. Reply to this tweet if a follow back is important 2u.”

The hacker account @Anon_0x03 was also still operational with the tweets shifting from retweets of stories done on the KDF twitter account hacking back pro-Palestine tweets on Gaza.

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Prior to Major Chirchir’s tweet of the recapture, KDF Spokesman Bogita Ongeri told Capital FM News that in addition to trying to regain control of the accounts, they were working with the police to apprehend the hackers.

“These are tech-savvy locals,” he speculated given the content of the tweets sent out by the hackers.

READ Police hunt down KDF Twitter account hackers

For the most part the hackers used the @kdfinfo twitter account to decry insecurity, corruption, tribalism and poaching.

But they also engaged in what Ongeri defined as, “escalating insults,” by tweeting President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto to, “piss off!”

“The #Kenya Ministry of Defence is under new management: #Anonymous,” they tweeted.

In the time they held the verified @kdfinfo twitter account hostage, its followers grew from over 65,000 to about 67,500.

The @kdfinfo twitter account is not the first of its kind to be hacked with the Israel Defence Forces twitter account being hacked into two weeks ago.

And given that both Major Chirchir’s and the KDF Twitter accounts were both hacked into, Capital FM’s digital team surmises that both accounts were operated by him.

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