President Ruto’s official website hacked: How hackers break into personal accounts
By Dan Kauna, July 20, 2026On July 18, 2026, Kenyans woke up to news that hackers had temporarily taken over President William Ruto’s official website, president.go.ke.
The attackers replaced the homepage with a ransom demand of five Bitcoins, or about Ksh41.3 million, before government ICT teams took the portal offline to contain the situation.
While state agencies handled the high-level breach, the incident sparked a broader conversation among everyday internet users about how easily online accounts can be hijacked.
How hackers break into personal accounts
Breaking into a website or social media profile rarely requires advanced skills seen in movies. Most cybercriminals simply rely on basic human habits or automated software that scans for weak points.
The most common entry point is social engineering, especially phishing. This is where attackers send fake emails, SMS messages, or WhatsApp links that trick people into entering their passwords on replica log-in pages.
A peer-reviewed study on credential theft found that “phishing remains the dominant method for credential theft, accounting for over 80% of incidents.” Once a user unwittingly enters their password on a fake page, the attacker steals it immediately.
Another common method is credential stuffing.
Attackers take passwords leaked from previous database breaches and automatically run them across platforms like X, Facebook, and Instagram, banking on the fact that many people use the exact same password for multiple accounts.
Steps to protect your profile
Beyond phishing and recycled passwords, modern cybercriminals also use silent malware called infostealers. These programs infect phones or computers through unverified downloads and grab saved log-in tokens straight from web browsers.
This allows an attacker to step into an active session without ever needing to enter a password or solve a security check.
Securing your personal accounts comes down to simple daily habits. Turning on two-factor authentication adds an immediate line of defence by sending a secondary code to your phone whenever someone tries to sign in.
Using different, strong passwords for each app and refusing to click on unverified links sent through random messages keeps your digital presence secure.