The attackers tried to lure the AEC's followers to a phishing website

Aug 6, 2013 06:23 GMT  ·  By

The official Twitter account of the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), the organization responsible for conducting elections and referendums, has been hacked. 

Apparently, the hacker started sending out direct messages to users.

“If u received a direct message from us overnight please disregard. The AEC's account was hacked and we are taking appropriate action,” AEC representatives wrote on Twitter a few hours ago.

“Thank you all for alerting us to this issue,” they added.

It seems the attack is part of a phishing campaign.

“If you filled in any details once you clicked the link I advise you to change your Twitter password asap,” AEC noted.

Over the past period, experts have uncovered several phishing scams that rely on hijacked accounts from which cybercriminals send out messages such as “Hey this person is threatening to expose something really serious and bad about you” or “This person is threatening to expose something bad about you” in an attempt to lure potential victims to phishing sites.