Florida's Nikki Fried loses control of her Twitter account following 'fishing attack': report

Florida's only statewide elected Democrat lost control of her Twitter account on Saturday.

Visitors to the Twitter account @NikkiFried were greeted with "skulltoons" images. Her bio described the account as a moderator for sculltoons NFT and a "Web3 Enthusiast."

"Florida Agriculture Commissioner. Only statewide elected Democrat since 2012. Running for governor to bring #SomethingNew to Florida," is how her bio read on Monday, per the Way Back Machine.

As was noted by David Smiley, the Washington editor for the Miami Herald, an email from Fried's gubernatorial campaign issued a press release saying "Nikki Fried's Twitter account was compromised through a fishing (sic) attack."

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) describes a "phishing attack" on its website.

"Phishing is a form of social engineering. Phishing attacks use email or malicious websites to solicit personal information by posing as a trustworthy organization. For example, an attacker may send email seemingly from a reputable credit card company or financial institution that requests account information, often suggesting that there is a problem. When users respond with the requested information, attackers can use it to gain access to the accounts," CISA explained.

The Fried campaign urged people "do not click on any links tweeted from the @NikkiFried account."

Screengrab of Nikki Fried's Twitter account.Screengrab.

A fishing attack!https://twitter.com/PeterSchorschFL/status/1505331081603698704\u00a0\u2026

— David Smiley (@David Smiley) 1647733993