Maryland Department of Human Services social media account hacked, spokeswoman says

A bizarre post that briefly appeared on the Maryland Department of Human Services Facebook page early Wednesday morning was the result of the account being hacked, a spokeswoman said.

The post claimed the state’s human services provider had been infiltrated by the CIA. Screenshots of the post, which claimed to have come from a “whistleblower,” appeared on social media Wednesday and show a time stamp after 1 a.m.

Department of Human Services spokeswoman Katherine Morris says she was having trouble sleeping overnight and turned to social media around 3:30 a.m., when she discovered the strange message on the government page.

The anonymous author of the post claimed to be a CIA employee assigned to the department’s office of communications and names several high-ranking Maryland officials, including Morris.

“It would be cool to be 80 years old and tell my grandkids we were in cahoots with the CIA or whatever, but no,” Morris said when asked about the message.

Morris said she deleted the post and temporarily disabled the account out of an abundance of caution.

“Silver lining, it was a good exercise,” she said.