UK civil service tweet - done on purpose?

[CoRhona]

The official account of the civil service tweeted this earlier, widely thought to be about Boris' defence of Dominic Cimmings:

"Arrogant and offensive
Can you imagine having to work with these truth twisters?"

I think some poor sod has tweeted from the 'work' account instead of their own.

DH thinks it was done on purpose.

YABU - it most definitely was done on purpose

YANBU - Ooops...

Well that was in reply to someone suggesting someone else sauntered onto the account and tweeted it.

On purpose. More interesting than your average government tweet. It's like a squirrel suddenly got control of the wheels of command.

People shouldn't celebrate this. In any job this would be gross misconduct and it is particularly damaging for the civil service. It undermines trust that the civil service can serve ministers of all parties impartially.

I'd be surprised if the person operating the Civil Service social media accounts is higher than an O-band, to be honest. When I worked for the civil service I applied for a promotion position into a department that had social media under its remit and the staff with responsibility for posting updates were a mix of AO and O bands, although this around 13-14 years ago before social media really took off in a big way so it might have changed now.

You’ll generally now have a team running SM accounts generally ranging from G7 to IO (HEO equivalent). Mainly digital team though some departments will have press team access though only through platforms that require 2 eye sign off.

Passwords, however... kept in a master word doc that likely most of a team have access to.

Someone asked about the investigation - if they treat it similarly to a leak enquiry yes they can demand access to personal phones.

@Lordfrontpaw like Twitter accounts have never been hacked?

Done on purpose according to Cabinet Office.

Cabinet Office
✔
@cabinetofficeuk
An unauthorised tweet was posted on a government channel this evening. The post has been removed and we are investigating the matter.

18.6K
6:47 PM - May 24, 2020

Another reason to ❤ JK Rowling

Yes they have been hacked - it they can be traced. Of course they can. It isn’t hard to see if it was a member of staff of someone outside.

It will be considered gross misconduct in this instance too, and I would be extremely surprised if they weren't fired and unable to gain clearance in the future. I am sure more people with an ounce of intelligence realise that it was the tweet of one person, and doesn't represent every single member of the civil services point of view. If people feel it undermines trust of an entire complex organisation then that's on them to be honest.

Another reason I don’t go with the sanction claim is that it would be traceable. Given that they were not in the same room, the person would have had to send it, or a phone call.

Too far fetched, a CS higher up would not do this.

Passwords - access by the team? Even where I work my passwords are kept on a locked file that the MD and head of tech have the password for (in case I get hit by a bus). If several people needed it, I’d only let those who needed it have the password, and change that if staff changed.

I’ve always works in finance and tech.

Yes they have been hacked - it they can be traced. Of course they can. It isn’t hard to see if it was a member of staff of someone outside

Again... ya think?! No one has said it can’t be traced.

It was a beautiful thing, almost like a chink of light through a locked door

Why are you nipping at me?

Because you keep stating obvious!

It undermines trust that the civil service can serve ministers of all parties impartially

It's entirely possible to work with/for someone and do a very good job, despite disagreeing with them. If people can't see that then that would be a reflection on how they (fail to) deal with things rather than on the person that tweeted that comment. I can see why some politicians might not be able to understand that, based on the way they behave at Westminster.

It’s called a conversation. I did t realise we needed to post unique insights into issues. Excuuuuuussss me.

Passwords - access by the team? Even where I work my passwords are kept on a locked file that the MD and head of tech have the password for (in case I get hit by a bus). If several people needed it, I’d only let those who needed it have the password, and change that if staff changed.

Yep. They’ll (probably) have been in a password protected file but that password will probably be shared among quite a few of the digi team at all grades. Agree that passwords (both for the master doc and the individual platform passwords) should be changed when staff change.

In a crisis like this there will have been lots of people from other departments brought in to bolster the Cabinet Office digi operation. Entirely possible someone will have got lax with password security.

@JassyRadlett I thought theyd have changed the department set up now that social media is much bigger than it was then.

And yes to asking for personal phones if there was a high level investigation. We had IG investigating an issue that became a criminal matter, I don't want to say exactly what because of confidentiality but we were all formally interviewed, had our computer records checked, building sign-ins checked, and when they narrowed it down to a particular team all of that team had their financial records checked including personal bank accounts. Once the individual was found they were arrested, charged, and when it got to court they received a far harsher sentence than expected because the judge took the view that they were a civil servant and therefore knew the rules and the consequences of breaking them.

I have found (and please excuse if anyone knows this) that the social media is often handed out to junior members of the team as it’s seen as something that’s not particularly ‘important’.

Cummings did say the Civil Service should hire ‘weirdos and misfits‘ including for jobs at number ten and in communications roles, so who knows... maybe they did that?

www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/cummings-seeks-weirdos-and-misfits-work-no10

I think it was deliberate as its actually quite polite, if someone was really angry at the press conference and tweeting from their own account I'd expect stronger language (unless I'm just a bit uncouth! ).

Even if it was a password accessible by an entire team, even if they are all remotely working or in an office somewhere, the computer account login and/or the IP address will give away the computer used.

I wonder if we will ever find out?

I'm a senior civil servant and this would easily be traced in my Dept. It's not really on for a CS to this, no matter how right or wrong they are. I have to do the same impartial job, no matter what Government is in situ. Hopefully it was a parting shot and not an outburst. I might rant to my dh about my work opinions but would never publically make my views known even down to my political leanings.