MIDLAND, Texas — At about 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 9, Midland County Sheriff candidate Rory McKinney and his team were made aware that unauthorized comments were posted on his campaign page by someone impersonating McKinney.
“If they can go into my profile, they can do anything to it," McKinney said. "They can just wipe it clean if they wanted to or in this case put a bunch of fake news out there to the public and it’s not me or my campaign team that’s doing it.”
Upon discovering this breach, the team immediately launched an investigation into the matter. They traced a local phone number associated with the hacked Facebook profile to an individual.
The investigation is ongoing, and the team says they are also exploring the option of involving the appropriate authorities to address this issue because in Texas online impersonation constitutes a criminal offense.
McKinney says that the team has already been working to put in more safeguards on the account.
“The campaign team is on it, and they’ve created more firewalls, if you will, better protection to keep someone from doing that again," McKinney added.
McKinney also said that it's important for everyone, even those not running for any sort of office, to always check their social accounts for any suspicious activity.