Dr. Edward Danso-Ansong, Head of Cyber Security Lab at the Department of Computer Science, University of Ghana, Legon, has disclosed that the hacking of President Mahama’s X account is not peculiar to him.
According to Dr Danso-Ansong, the incident, which is an “account takeover”, is usually targeted at high-profile personalities with large following on social media, citing other prominent persons across the globe who have suffered same fate.
His comments follow the takeover of President Mahama’s X account in the late hours of Sunday, March 16, 2025, where the persons behind the act, described as “unscrupulous persons” by the presidency, posted an ad of a cryptocurrency company.
Speaking on Ghana Tonight on TV3 Tuesday, March 18, 2025, Dr. Danso-Ansong, despite citing the danger associated with the incident due to the level of chaos it could have created, indicated that similar fate has been suffered by the most popular and influential persons across the globe.
“In actual fact, this particular incident is not something that is actually occurring in isolation. There has been a number of such notable incidents where a technical account takes over. This type of attack is what we call an account takeover,” he disclosed.
“It’s usually targeted at people with high POS, people who are influential. For instance, in the year 2020, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Bill Gates all suffered a similar fate on their Twitter or X accounts,” added the cyber security expert.
He further pointed out that such attack “keeps reoccurring even though more stricter measures have been used to ensure that such kinds of hacks do not occur.”
The takeover of the account was confirmed by the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) who said President Mahama’s official X account, @JDMahama was “compromised”.
It’s usually targeted at people with high POS, people who are influential. For instance, in the year 2020, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Bill Gates all suffered a similar fate on their Twitter or X accounts,” added the cyber security expert.
He further pointed out that such attack “keeps reoccurring even though more stricter measures have been used to ensure that such kinds of hacks do not occur.”
The takeover of the account was confirmed by the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) who said President Mahama’s official X account, @JDMahama was “compromised”.
The CSA in a statement Tuesday, March 18, 2025, said it received report about the ‘hacking’ of the President’s X account in the early hours of Monday, March 17, 2025.
The statement added that the account was used to promote a cryptocurrency called “Solana Africa”.
