Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has fallen victim to a cyber attack after she endorsed a start-up that is reportedly trying to become a social media platform for her political supporters.
According to a report in ReCode, Clinton — to the apparent surprise of her followers — took to Twitter late Sunday night to offer her personal endorsement of a new, relatively unknown website called Verrit.
“I’m excited to sign up for @Verrit, a media platform for the 65.8 million! Will you join me and sign up too?” she tweeted.
Peter Daou, the creator of the website, said Verrit was his attempt to create an online hub for Clinton backers so that they can find easy-to-share facts, stats and other “information you can take out to social media when you’re having debates on key issues people are discussing”.
The “65.8 million” in Clinton’s tweet is her own vote total from the 2016 presidential election.
Soon after Clinton’s tweet, Verrit stopped loading — the result of a “pretty significant and sophisticated” cyber attack, Daou said.
He, however, declined to share the name of his hosting company.