Unlike the last go-round, we may have a genuine Capitol Hill Twitter hacker on our hands. An unauthorized user breached the official Twitter account of Ohio Republican Rep. Bill Johnson, according to a statement issued by his office.
“Late Wednesday night, we learned that Congressman Johnson’s official Twitter account had been compromised by an unauthorized user,” wrote communications director Jessica R. Towhey. “We took immediate steps to delete two unauthorized tweets and an inappropriate photograph. We are currently working with U.S. Capitol Police, House Information Security and Twitter to resolve this matter.”
Towhey says each contact responded immediately, and they are all treating the breach as a serious matter.
After the hacker replaced Johnson’s profile picture with a lewd image, the individual began sending unauthorized tweets. Another user sent Johnson’s account a direct message to notify the congressman that his account had apparently been compromised.
Johnson’s office immediately logged on, deleted the inappropriate profile picture and two unauthorized tweets, and notified the congressman and his chief of staff.
His office also asked TweetCongress to remove the offensive picture from its aggregation stream. The site obliged after the office explained the situation.
Johnson sent an explanation today to his Twitter followers.
“Folks, this account has been hacked,” he tweeted. “We apologize for anything offensive from the account recently. Thank you as we work to figure this out.”
His office followed with a second Twitter message, promising, “We’ll con’t [continue] 2 tweet!”
After the dust settled, Johnson’s profile photo was re-set to a smiling head shot of the congressman.