Though some of us only have ourselves to blame, like former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who was hacked after posting a photo of his Qantas boarding pass to social media.

Australian tech expert Alex Hope said he was able to obtain Abbott’s phone number and passport details in just 45 minutes after he shared his boarding pass on Instagram.

Admittedly, my time away from Twitter, now considered the “cesspool” of social media has been quite good for my productivity and wellbeing, especially as my still active Twitter pals inform me my most ardent, hard-working troll has been furiously Tweeting away in my absence, bless him.

But with more than 5 million Australians on Twitter alone, it is a hard platform to ignore when it comes to gauging the zeitgeist, no matter how much we try.

As for who would be bothered to hack my account I really have no idea. I doubt the social mountaineers and “colourful” characters I write about are well versed in such hi-tech “black ops”, while my hapless little troll in the ’burbs is distinctly of the “garden variety”.

But whoever it was, they were certainly thorough in their hacking. In a matter of minutes they effectively cleared all the necessary passwords and details for me to prove I was the account’s true owner. Trying to rectify this has become an inordinately tedious process sapping my motivation by the minute.

They also managed to use my stolen credentials to start up new Twitter accounts in my name entirely without my knowledge, as well as sign me up to a gazillion email subscription lists. Trying to deactivate the accounts and subscriptions has been equally dull.

Kim Kardashian’s hacker in 2020 turned out to be a nerdy teenager who infiltrated several high-profile Twitter accounts to solicit bitcoin transactions. Graham Ivan Clark, of Florida, was 17 at the time. He’s currently serving three years in prison after taking over KK’s account, along with those belonging to President Joe Biden, Bill Gates and, somewhat ironically given more recent events, Elon Musk.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO announced recently he offered to buy all the shares of Twitter that he doesn’t already own in a deal that would value the company at about $41 billion.

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Musk has said his goal was to “unlock” Twitter’s “extraordinary potential,” but while he’s been banging on about algorithms and free speech, perhaps his attention should really be focused on truly securing the platform, restoring its integrity and making it accountable for those of us – the vast majority – who use it without Kim Kardashian’s celebrity status.

Maybe he could even hire a few living humans to pick up the phone? Now, that truly would be “extraordinary”.