President of WEF's Twitter hacked by Turkish group

Børge Brende has been targeted by people claiming to represent the Turkish cyber army Ayyıldız Tim

Børge Brende's Twitter account has been attacked. Twitter

The Twitter account of the president of the World Economic Forum has been hacked.

Børge Brende, the former minister of foreign affairs for Norway, has been targeted by people claiming to represent the Turkish cyber army Ayyıldız Tim.

In two tweets, the group published a video and a message saying the group now has access to his direct messages, private messages sent between Twitter users.

Writing in Turkish and English, the group said: “You are hacked by the Turkish cyber army Ayyıldız Tim! We got your DM correspondence! We will show you the power of the Turk!”

The message was posted at 9.37am GMT (1.37pm UAE) and was pinned to the top of Mr Brende’s profile to ensure it is the first post visible on his account.

A second post, written in Turkish, was published at 12.20pm GMT (4.20pm UAE) and included a video with clips of other public figures who have been the victims of hackers, such as Guy Verhofstadt, the former prime minister of Belgium. The group claim to have hacked into former Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis’s twitter account in the past and the web site of the United States Department of Defense.

The group also changed the background image of Mr Brende’s account to an image of an eagle and the hacker’s logo, as well as writing the group’s name in his description on the social media site.

An hour and a half after the first post was published, the official Twitter for the World Economic Forum posted a tweet saying “We are aware of the hack to Borge Brende’s twitter account and we have notified @twitter.”