Improve Twitter passwords experts warn after minister’s account hacked

Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris apologised after “some deeply unpleasant stuff” was posted to his account.

Experts are warning Twitter users to update their passwords (Andrew Matthews/PA) (PA Archive)

The hacking of public figures’ Twitter accounts does not mean the social media giant has major internal security problems, cybersecurity experts have said, but they have urged users to improve their account security.

The Twitter account of Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has become the latest to be compromised as a string of offensive messages was posted before being deleted. It comes only days after the Twitter profile of Education Secretary Gillian Keegan also fell victim to hackers.

In a string of high-profile hacking incidents, Piers Morgan’s account has also been compromised in recent weeks.