Last week NASA’s crisis prevention plans were put to the test when the Twitter account used by astronauts on space missions, @NASA_Astronauts, was hijacked and put to work broadcasting advertising spam. MSNBC reports:
“Either NASA astronauts are really getting hit hard by Obama’s manned space program cuts or their Twitter account has been hacked by spammers just over an hour ago,” noted Gizmodo’s Jesus Diaz. “For a second, however, I thought Best Buy took over the ISS (International Space Station).”
NASA caught and remedied the problem by the time the tech blog alerted the masses to this galactic government infiltration. Thirty-three minutes after the final red alert about hot flat-screen deals, @NASA_Astronauts posted this tweet: “Our apologies for the odd Twitter behavior earlier. We have fixed the problem. Back to tweets from NASA astronauts.”
If you’re interested in tips on discount electronics, you’ll have to look elsewhere. The counterfeit tweets have since been removed. “We closely monitor the Twitter accounts, and once the issue was discovered we took corrective action,” Stephanie Schierholz, NASA’s social media manager said in an e-mail.
NASA was one of the first government organizations to embrace Twitter and its experience and preparation paid off. With the situation not only under control, but fully and publicly resolved in just over an hour’s time, NASA’s social media team gets high marks from us.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/