MP falls victim to social media virus

PETERBOROUGH MP Stewart Jackson has shrugged off a hacker attack on his Twitter account that sent weight loss tips to more than 3,000 people.

Mr Jackson, who has 3,082 followers to updates from his @Sjacksonmp handle, saw public messages posted from the account about diet changes helping him lose weight on Saturday night.

One message read: “I lost weight without having to make any major diet changes while boosting energy levels, heres how: http://media-channel-8.com.”

The account also sent private messages warning other Twitter users about fabricated rumours about them, with a link to a website that passes the virus on.

Mr Jackson first realised the issue on Saturday night and immediately deactivated his account - only for Twitter to reactivate it overnight, meaning more spam messages were sent out on Sunday.

Mr Jackson has now taken the advice of Twitter experts to change his password to stop the messages being sent.

He said: “It was frustrating and I don’t want people to feel they follow me on Twitter expecting to get spam from me into their system.

“I got a lot of messages saying to have a look at it from about 9pm on Saturday, and deleted the account soon after.

hacked: Stewart Jackson.

“I have now reactivated it with a different password so I hope that solves the problem I can’t understand why the hacker did it - I don’t see the benefit.”

Mr Jackson often responds to other Twitter users online, and his pro-active approach has won him many plaudits as well as criticisms from rival parties.

He made national news when he responded angrily to Twitter users criticising his interpretation of data on Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIS).

After the Peterborough City Council election, Mr Jackson got in a war of words with unsuccessful Labour party candidate Nicola Day-dempsey.

He has also blocked some users from