UK politician Zack Polanski hacked on X to promote crypto scam

Zack Polanski, a prominent politician in the UK’s Green Party, has called for X (formerly Twitter) to protect its users more robustly after his X account was hacked and used to promote a crypto scam.

The Green Party’s deputy leader was reportedly locked out of his X account before his profile picture and header were changed. Links to an external site were posted, seemingly promoting a crypto scam.

In a statement from the Green Party shared with The Record, Polanski said, “I’m keen that X tackle those who have hacked into my account and restore my access as soon as possible.”

He said that X should “protect the site’s users more robustly and restore accounts more quickly,” and added that “it’s important people are able to engage with their elected representatives’ work through social media.”

X’s security practices have come under fire after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claimed its X account was hacked on Tuesday. 

Read more: X account of crypto auditing firm CetriK hacked

The X account of crypto auditing firm CetriK was also hacked and posted fake warnings about a crypto exploit in an attempt to panic users into clicking on a link that steals crypto.  

Polanski’s account was reinstated shortly after giving a statement to the outlet, but it wasn’t immediately in his control. At press time, Polanski’s X account has returned to its normal state.  

Update January 10, 14:43 UTC:  The Green Party shared screenshots of the hack with Protos that show the hacker rebranding the account to represent Pond0x, a crypto designed around a frog with roughly 33.7K followers on X.

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