By , ,
Published December 22, 2015
It's the real thing this time, folks. No lewd pictures or phony excuses...A U.S. senator's Twitter account was actually hacked on Monday afternoon.
The much-exercised account of Sen. Chuck Grassley, a prolific tweeter, was hacked, according to spokeswoman Jill Kozeny, though the offender will not take much pleasure out of the fact that the senator was actually in an airplane en route from his home state of Iowa to Washington for the beginning of the new session. He never knew what hit him.
The hacker instantly raised red flags with this phony tweet, "Dear Iowans, vote against ACTA, SOPA, and PIPA, because this man, Chuck Grassley, wants YOUR internet censored and all of that BS." He then posted at least seven more tweets which have since been removed from the senator's log, including one that purported to be the senator's password.
The bogus posts had to do with legislation aimed at stopping Internet piracy, and as top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley was at ground zero for the mamouth fight that pitted Hollywood against mega-Internet giants like Google and Twitter. But Grassley announced last week that he was pulling out of talks and opposing the legislative effort, for now. A scheduled vote was, soon after, postponed.
The Iowa Republican's Washington-based staff "noticed the hacking after the first false tweet was posted, and the office immediately called Twitter to obtain access to the account so the password could be changed," Kozeny told Fox. "The password has been changed, and Senator Grassley controls the account again."
Kozeny said the Sergeant at Arms office has been contacted about the incident.
Grassley is famous for posting his own tweets from his BlackBerry device, a dogged pro known for jamming in more abbreviated words than most can even comprehend. Witness a post from last week, "Panira TownMeet 29ppl issues:Immigration EpARegs RecessAppts GradingCongress'f' CapitalGainsTax Dod/Terrorism."
Ironically, in announcing his opposition to the various bills related to piracy, the senator said, "It's critical we protect the intellectual property rights of our businesses and fight online infringement, but at the same time, we can't do harm to the internet, the Constitution, or the ability of businesses to grow and innovate."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senators-twitter-account-hacked