- UK House of Commons Leader Lucy Powell becomes the seventh British MP to have their X account hacked since Elon Musk‘s Twitter acquisition three years ago.
- Powell’s account was used to promote a fraudulent “House of Commons Coin” ($HCC), which generated less than £300 ($400) in profit.
- Most hacked MP accounts have been exploited for cryptocurrency scams, with warnings from officials about tightening social media security.
Lucy Powell, Leader of the UK House of Commons, had her X account compromised on Tuesday in a cryptocurrency scam that promoted a fake “House of Commons Coin.” Powell is now the seventh British Member of Parliament whose account has been hacked since Elon Musk purchased Twitter (now X) three years ago, according to data compiled on MP account breaches.
The fraudulent token was marketed under the ticker symbol “$HCC” through Powell’s hijacked account. A senior research associate from CoinShares told the BBC that the scam involved just 34 transactions and likely generated less than £300 ($400) in profit for the perpetrators.
Rising Pattern of MP Account Compromises
In 2024 alone, four UK politicians have had their X accounts hacked to promote various cryptocurrency scams. Among the victims were the Green Party’s Deputy Leader and Welsh Labour MP Chris Elmore. The data shows only one exception to the crypto-scam pattern: Chris Heaton-Harris, whose compromised account was instead used to post offensive content rather than promote fraudulent tokens.
The full list of affected UK MPs since Musk’s acquisition of the platform can be viewed in this timeline graphic, which illustrates the growing frequency of such security breaches.
Broader Institutional Vulnerabilities
Other notable organizations have also fallen victim to similar hacks. The British Army had its X account compromised in 2022 to promote an NFT scam, while the World Health Organization was hacked to advertise a Solana-based token ironically named “hacked.”
The security concerns extend beyond cryptocurrency scams. In 2022, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle issued warnings to MPs to strengthen their phone security, claiming that parliamentarians were being targeted by hostile foreign entities seeking sensitive information.
The recurring pattern of compromised accounts raises questions about platform security on X and the vulnerability of high-profile political figures to digital exploitation, particularly for cryptocurrency-related fraud schemes.
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