Andi Arief, the disaster management adviser to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the President of Indonesia, watch as his Twitter account was hacked this week.
While hacked Twitter accounts are nothing new, the hacker decided to spread a Tsunami warning to Arief’s followers, which in turn led to panic in the country which has already seen one recent Tsunami kill 100 people.
The message read:
“Besok jakarta tsunami.”
Which translated means “Jakarta tsunami tomorrow.” While that was just one message sent from Arief’s account it was the one that caused the most panic in the country.
After gaining control of his account he responded “back to normal.”
This is the prime example of the dangers associated with Twitter accounts where quickly updated information can be misleading but quickly retweeted repeatedly to thousands, even millions of other followers.
