Janelle Irwin Taylor
Tampa police are investigating a bomb threat made against Tampa International Airport after hackers took over Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s Twitter account early Thursday morning with a stream of pornographic and racist tweets.
The hackers also made a bomb threat against Tampa International Airport and claimed a ballistic missile was inbound to the Tampa Bay area.
“SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” the tweet read, emphasis theirs.
The tweets started just before 4 a.m. As of 7:45 a.m. the account still had not been recovered.
The mayor’s office responded confirming the mayor’s official Twitter account had been hacked.
“We will work with the Tampa Police Department as well as all investigators to figure out how this breach was made. We urge residents to change their passwords and continue to alert officials when they see an unlikely change in account activity. We are working with law enforcement to investigate all threats made by this hack,” a statement from Buckhorn spokesperson Ashley Bauman read.
The hackers changed Buckhorn’s name to “Bob Cuckhorn” and tweets focused on racist comments against African-Americans including that all schools would be closed today because “N—–s just have to ruin everything, don’t they?”
At one point the hackers claimed the account had not been taken over.
“No, I have not been hacked you dumb f—ing liberals. I’ve just waken up, and you should too,” a tweet just after 4:30 a.m. read.
The offensive tweets also included a comment about women writing “There are times in life I feel like it was a mistake allowing women to think they are equals.”
The hackers added a name and address to Buckhorn’s profile and tweeted, “4157 Devonshire CT NE, Salem, Oregon, 97305, United States come get me guys im (sic) the hacker.”
A Google search of that address appears to show an apartment complex.
Pornographic tweets showed images of cartoon characters and some of what appeared to be underage girls.
Buckhorn is out of state on a hunting trip. He and his staff are currently working on getting his Twitter account closed.
Tampa police told WFLA they are investigating the hack and the bomb threat. “TPD is aware of that and we are investigating it as a despicable hack obviously,” said Tampa Police Department Spokesperson Steve Hegarty.
Tampa International Airport tweeted they are aware of the hack and do not have reason to believe any of the threats made are credible.
Airport Police are aware of hackers who made threats against the airport via the Tampa mayor’s twitter account. Police do not believe the threats are credible but are taking appropriate action to ensure the safety of TPA. Operations for passengers are normal at this time.
— Tampa Intl Airport ✈️ (@FlyTPA) February 21, 2019
