A hacker took over the Twitter account of Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and sent out a fake ballistic missile warning and a bomb threat from the compromised account.
The threat actor sent a fake bomb threat to Tampa International Airport and said there was a ballistic missile headed to the Tampa area in a series of tweets that have since been deleted and were sent in the early hours of Feb. 21, according to screenshots obtained by ABC Action News.
The attacker also tweeted threats to Tampa staff and the Tampa Veterans Affairs office. Local authorities have since ruled the threats as not credible as detectives are searching for who is behind the messages.
“We will work with our Tampa Police Department as well as all investigators to figure out how this breach was made,” a spokesperson for the mayor and the city of Tampa said in a release. “We urge residents to change their passwords and continue to alert officials when they see an unlikely change in account activity. We are working with law enforcement to investigate all threats made by this hack.”
Twitter has also been in contact with the mayor’s office and has since shared tools to enhance the security of the account.
