The hoax could have turned into a drama. A French surfer nicknamed Kira, from Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), managed to recover access to a certified Twitter account belonging to a small Nigerian political party called "United Democratic Party" (UDP) on Thursday. The young hacker used this official account to impersonate Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, and then issued a war declaration to Donald Trump.
"I, Muhammadu Buhari, today declare war on the United States by promising to destroy the civilians who adhere to the policy of Mr. Donald Trump. @ RealDonaldTrump, you have been warned," the hacker tweeted Thursday evening at 22:52 precisely, in flawless English.
⚡ The account of the "Democratic Union Party" leading #Nigeria was hacked by "Kira" who notably tweeted in English that the country was declaring war on the United States.
Faced with this unprecedented cyber attack, the Nigerian government contacted the embassy 🇫🇷. #Hacking pic.twitter.com/KUEsCjry9x
Very quickly, the message was retweeted hundreds of times. Frightened by the extent of his hoax, the French surfer decided to delete his tweet, before it was picked up across the Atlantic. This hoax, however, continued to fuel many discussions on Thursday and Friday on social networks.
Twitter suspended Friday morning the account of Kira, and some of her friends who participated in this hoax, which could have gone very wrong. The UDP's real Twitter account was also suspended until Friday morning, as was the official government of Nigeria account.
Nigeria's Wikipedia page also hacked
The Nigerian Wikipedia page was also hacked Thursday evening: the name of President Buhari disappeared in favor of "Kira Binks", the pseudonym of the French hacker who allegedly operated from… a Bobigny kebab, says Conflits, a Twitter account which has set itself the objective of "tracking conflicts around the globe in real time".
🇳🇬 Cyberattack targeting #Nigeria: it seems to be fun on the side of the Wikipedia of Nigeria. The president (#Buhari) has been changed (Kira). Reminder: this #hacker tweeted for 1 hour from a kebab (from #Bobigny?) With the official account. The Embassy 🇫🇷 alerted. [Screen: 11.40 p.m.] pic.twitter.com/TgrYSxBo23
- Conflicts (@Conflits_FR) January 16, 2020Online identity theft, if it is the subject of a complaint, can be punished with a year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros. Piracy can be punished with three years' imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 euros.
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- Bobigny
- By the Web
- United States
- Identity theft
- War
- Donald trump
- Nigeria