Twitter has reinstated a suspended account of a hacker known as ‘Guccifer 2.0’ who publicised leaked personal data belonging to Democrat politicians but now Wordpress has censored his website.
The hacker had leaked the sensitive data of 193 current and ex-Congress members on August 12.
House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she received “obscene and sick calls” calls after her contact details were released by the hacker. In a letter to party colleagues, Pelosi also advised them to change their contact numbers.
"I am changing my phone number, and I advise you to do so as well," said Pelosi.
Twitter did not state any reason for chucking Guccifer’s account off the platform and reinstating it within 24 hours but the hacker’s attempts to disseminate the information via Wordpress site were undone after the web platform censored the web page hosting the hacked data.
“Some content on this page was disabled on August 13, 2016 upon receipt of a valid complaint regarding the publication of private information,” a note on the hacker’s site read which was followed by a link of WordPress policy on sharing private information.
Technical analysis of the leak and security companies have asserted that the hack had links to Russia though Putin has been denying the charges. Guccifer too has denied accusations of being associated with the Russian state. US intelligence chief James Clapper said there wasn’t enough evidence to point the finger just yet.
The hack is followed a breach of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) late last month. More than 19,200 emails from DNC members were published via whistle-blowing website Wikileaks in July.
Guccifer, however, has now promised to hand emails and materials from the DCCC hack to Wikileaks.
“#Guccifer2 I'll send the major trove of the #DCCC materials and emails to #wikileaks keep following...,” read Guccifer’s tweet on August 13.
Neither Twitter nor WordPress has commented over data leak.
Concerns have been raised about the impact on DCCC officials. Besides contact information, the latest leak contained documents relating to the election campaign and details about some Democratic politicians' staff members.
Affected House representatives have been advised to change passwords to government and personal accounts.
The FBI is leading an investigation into the leaks.
