FinMin’s social media account hacked

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake yesterday distanced himself from two fake social media accounts that have been masquerading him and posting anti-establishment propaganda.

“I have no connections whatsoever with these two pages which publish news detrimental to the interests of the national unity government and the coexistence of the Sri Lankan society,” Karunanayake said in a statement.

The twitter handle @RavikOfficial and the Facebook account Ravi Karunanayake Lanka Intelligence, which are interconnected, have been attempting to pass off as his official accounts, Karunanayake said. 

He added that government officials have been directed to make a complaint at the Criminal Investigation Division, and the matter has been brought to the attention of Sri Lanka’s anti-cyber crime unit Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT).

The accounts have been in operation for over 5 months, and the twitter account has nearly 1,400 followers, while the Facebook account, which has been verified by Facebook as an official account, has over 25,500 likes.