By: Adriano Bianchi
The furious (and belated) incursion of Argentine politicians on Twitter has already begun to generate the first headaches for officials, legislators and leaders. In recent times several have been victims of hackers or doubles who enter with their accounts and leave them badly standing in front of their followers.
From microblogging network enthusiasts like Héctor Timerman, to Mauricio Macri and his PRO cabinet, pioneers in communicating through the internet, to newbies like Cristina de Kirchner, who is making her first weapons, all are under constant threat of suffering a cyberattack.
The most recent case has as a victim the governor of San Juan, José Luis Gioja, who suffered the theft of his Twitter profile, and from where a list of irreproducible expletives towards followers of the provincial president came out.
This fact reinstates the debate about the dangers and precautions that the political class must take when using social networks. In this sense, ambito.com consulted a security expert who provides some tips to avoid communication paperwork on the web.
"The most important point is to always use strong passwords and never give them to third parties," says Marcelo Pizani, an expert in computer security. In addition, he advises to be "very careful not to handle the same passwords for multiple services."
"Another key is not to enter any link through social networks, even if they come from followers or friends since it is frequent that these links lead to malicious websites where they will try to steal the access credentials of the microblogging service," he added.
In the specific case of Gioja, an adviser recounted: "It all started in the morning, we began to receive news that from the governor's Twitter (@joseluisgioja) they were insulting journalists from national media and people in general." "It had to be someone from outside, because Twitter is handled by the governor and two trusted people who help him," added the collaborator of the governor of San Juan.
A similar episode was lived by Eduardo Duhalde in his official space @eaduhalde. At that time, the "Communication Support Group" of buenos Aires reported "an identity theft" that "caused an almost irreparable damage to Dr. Eduardo Duhalde's communications with the media."
Gabriela Michetti also had problems. Her adviser on the matter commented that the deputy suffered the duplication of her Twitter account. "Someone used the name @Gabimichetti, which we have certified (verification carried out by the company of the user's identity). When we detected it, we asked the company to cancel the account, which happened as soon as possible," he said.
From the environment of Federico Pinedo, another regular user of microblogging, they also worked to certify the deputy's account "so that it is the only official one". However, they assure that there is no way to obtain "absolute guarantees against hackers, but in the event of an incident, we work with deputies and the City Government to communicate as soon as possible that the account was stolen."
The flip side is the piquetero Luis DElía, who "does not care if someone duplicates his identity or steals his account because all his followers and the media know who he is and how he communicates," according to his assistant for social networks.
In Mendoza, a hacker tormented the provincial government for a long time, attacking several official pages. After an investigation, the Cuyana Police detected and raided yesterday the house of an 18-year-old in the town of Maipú, accused of being the author of the cybercrimes.
Other resonant cases were those of the deputy Cynthia Hotton, of the monobloc Values for my Country, who suffered an attack on Facebook, by which her image was related to that of a Nazi swastika. Also the official website of the City of Buenos Aires was a victim of hackers, as well as the pages of the Front for Victory and INADI among many others.
Because it is an international service without limits and that at the moment there is no legislation that covers or contemplates it in its entirety, it is complex to try to go to the local Justice to make complaints of identity theft on Twitter or other social networks.
"No consequence of a cyberattack is pleasant, the important thing in those cases is to have a lot of speed to detect, reverse and communicate it, so that people know that the account or page is not under the control of the true owner," they indicate from the Media Secretariat of the City Government, a district that although it was a pioneer in communicating from the internet, he has also had bad experiences.
Source: Ambito
Authors: Computer Security News
