Boy, I hope the Australian Federal Police have enough resources to deal with the sudden Twitter hacking epidemic that’s hitting our politicians.

Former Treasurer and current US Ambassador Joe Hockey is the latest to be swept up in the tsunami of malicious Twitter likes, after his account liked a tweet that described Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as a “cranky prick”.

Turnbull appeared on the ABC’s Q&A last night, and was widely criticised for being condescending to audience members and host Virginia Trioli.

Prominent economist Stephen Koukoulas sent a tweet calling Turnbull a prick, and it was promptly liked by Hockey, which is… not very diplomatic.

Oh my goodness #auspol #qanda pic.twitter.com/IxH7XIwUgK

— Bevan Shields (@BevanShields) December 11, 2017

But please, don’t panic about a sudden breakdown in relations between the Prime Minister and the former Treasurer who was completely shafted when Turnbull took the top job in 2015. Oh no, everything is hunky dory between the pair.

Hockey tweeted this morning, clarifying that his account has been “hacked” and saying he had referred the incident to the AFP.

Don’t get too excited. It looks like I have been hacked.AFP now investigating.

— Joe Hockey (@JoeHockey) December 11, 2017

An Epidemic Of Hacking

Hockey is not the first politician to fall victim to this particularly sinister form of hacking. Someone also allegedly cracked into Health Minister Greg Hunt’s account over the weekend to like a single porn tweet.

Hunt, like Hockey, has referred the matter to the AFP.

Last month, someone else (or is it the same person?), allegedly broke through Defence Materiel Minister Christopher Pyne’s account to, once again, like a single, pornographic tweet.

Now this is serious business. Pyne has a national security portfolio and Hunt is also a member of cabinet, meaning both have access to important information. Hockey is the ambassador to the US, meaning he has all sorts of important conversations with important people.

Junkee has contacted the AFP to ask if it is concerned that Australia’s politicians are falling victim to a co-ordinated attack aimed at undermining confidence in Australia’s political class.

Who could it be? Perhaps it’s the Russians, who have proved adept at creating political instability. Or is it the North Koreans?

Maybe we should look a little closer to home. New Zealand has a new Prime Minister and our relationship is a little awkward right now.

Obviously the AFP is extremely busy investigating this vicious hacking campaign right now. If they have time to respond to our questions, we’ll let you know.

Correction: Christopher Pyne did not say he would contact the AFP over the “hacking”. He said it presented no security issue.