Jack Layton Teaches Us an Important Lesson in Online Security [Updated]

Update: The screen capture of Jack Layton’s Twitter page shown below is a Photoshop edit — all the entries save the second, third and fourth are real, and the “hack” never happened. The graphic passed to me was a joke, and I fell for it. It happens sometimes.

(But the security tip still applies!)

Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party here in Canada, has a Twitter account. He — or his personal assistant — has been posting in a style that sounds more like a real human being than a press release.

What he (or his personal assistant) has to remember is to make sure you’ve logged out of services like Twitter, GMail and so on after using a public computer. Otherwise, someone can hop on his account and post entries under his name…

Screen capture courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Update: Remember this about Layton’s Twitter account being used by unauthorized people:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper (or his personal assistant) also has a Twitter account, but it sounds like a series of short press releases, which is counter to his current marketing strategy, an attempt to convince the public that he can operate in more modes than “robot”, “bully” and “wanna-be Dubya”: