Peter Dunne says he'll be dropping email as a primary form of communication. Photo / Martin Sykes
A practical joker hacked into the Facebook account of a government minister, planting a link to a pornographic website.
United Future leader Peter Dunne, a Member of Parliament since 1984, estimates the rogue email is working through the 300 email addresses linked to his Facebook page.
"I haven't seen what
it is, but I can imagine it would be a porn image," Dunne said. "I gather it's not very pleasant."
Dunne now thinks the email was also a virus because when he opened a link it was a porn address.
"I just started deleting it furiously."
In an attempt to stop the virus he shut down his home computer and has since changed his passwords.
He was not sure if the email was sent by a random hacker or if he was deliberately targeted.
Dunne said he only found out about the porn when his Facebook friends started to call and email him their concerns.
"A few people said we knew it wasn't you because there was a spelling error in it," Dunne said.
His friends and fellow Facebook users were sympathetic.
The email was sent to the Facebook page on Tuesday.
He now believes the email was able to get through because he did not have the firewall on his account activated.
"I am not sure how it happened, but it is not satisfactory. I've taken advice on the steps I need to follow.
"I will be much more rigid about security in the future."
Worried about his parliamentary email and confidential documents, he will no longer be using email as a primary form of communication.
Labour's Phil Goff, Clayton Cosgrove, David Cunliffe and Shane Jones were targeted by impostors who created fake Twitter accounts.
