The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) has confirmed that its official X (formerly Twitter) account was hacked and remains compromised after more than 17 hours of paralysis.
Late on Friday, January 31, hackers took control of the account, which has more than 800,000 followers, and changed its name to “DeepSeek AI,” a Chinese AI platform very similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
KBC addressed the incident through its sister station, Radio Taifa, stating:
“We are actively working to restore full access to KBC Channel 1’s X account. We apologize for any inconvenience and urge caution when interacting with recent posts.”
Cryptocurrency scammers have taken over and were pushing fraudulent schemes, according to a spot check.
The attack reflects a rising worldwide trend of social media accounts being taken over for malicious reasons.
Experts in cybersecurity caution that in order to trick people, criminals frequently rebrand accounts to look like reliable organizations.
DeepSeek AI itself recently faced a security breach, exposing sensitive data, including chat histories and backend details.
Kenyan social media users have expressed frustration, urging swift action to recover the account.
The fact that hackers occasionally demand large ransoms to unlock hijacked profiles serves as a reminder of the growing cybersecurity threats that prominent accounts must contend with. Authorities have yet to release any new information.
