On Twitter, Ismail urged the public to report the matter to the authorities and ignore any messages sent from the account.

“Attention. My personal Telegram account has been hacked by irresponsible individuals,” he said on Twitter.

“Please ignore any messages received from that account and report it to the authorities.”

Commenting on the matter, lawyer Foong Cheng Leong said the biggest concern in such incidents was the spread of misinformation and the scale of damage it causes.

“If someone uses the account to spread fake news, people could screenshot it and make it go viral. That’s the main danger,” he told FMT.

However, he said it was unlikely that the government would use such platforms when disseminating confidential information.

Responding to the tweet, Twitter user @laughing_loo33 criticised the prime minister’s “weak administration” and questioned how he could manage the country when even his personal Telegram account was not managed well.

Another Twitter user, @JasSalleh, called on Ismail to inform the multimedia and communications minister to take immediate action.

Ironically, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had to temporarily suspend its official Twitter account in January 2021 because it was hacked. The agency returned to Twitter under a new handle six months later.

Meanwhile, in February 2021, it was reported that websites belonging to the Sabah and Perak state governments as well as the customs department were among those hacked by a group of hackers calling themselves “Anonymous Malaysia”.

We are live on Telegram, subscribe here for breaking news and the latest announcements.