Nick Robinson's X account hacked to promote crypto

The Today programme presenter got locked out of his account on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday night after clicking a link in an email he mistakenly thought was from the social media platform.

Robinson, 61, mentioned that he was still locked out of his account on Tuesday after his passwords were changed, saying, "So anything you read today, it won't be me."

A cybersecurity expert explained that such attacks are likely opportunistic, using code rather than humans to target social media users with many followers to exploit them.

The email sent to Robinson was made to look legitimate and included a link claiming it would let him review content that supposedly violated X's policies, to prevent his account from being suspended. After Tuesday's Today programme, Robinson admitted he fell for the scam despite having completed online security courses that highlighted the signs of phishing emails.

He said: "Why? Because my defenses were down—I was tired after a very long day, I was rushing, and the phishing email made me think that if I didn't act fast, I'd be in trouble.

"However, I didn't just fall for it. I tried repeatedly to use the official X site to address the issue I was warned about, and only after trying again and again and failing did I think, 'Oh, what's the worst that can happen?'

"Well, now I know. I should have thought the opposite—if this problem is really serious, they'll contact me again."

He added: "My main mistake was not checking the email address, which clearly showed it wasn't X contacting me but a hacker. Everything else looked just like the real thing."