Security News > 2021 > March > Child Unknowingly Tweets From US Nuclear Command's Account
Some jokingly said the cryptic tweet, ";l;;gmlxzssaw," was a US nuclear launch code.
Now the US Strategic Command, which runs the country's powerful nuclear weapons force, says the enigmatic posting on its Twitter account in fact came from the hands of a precocious kid.
Headquartered in Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, Stratcom manages the US military's strategic deterrence - that is, the massive nuclear weapons force and missile defenses that are designed to discourage any attack against the country by other powers.
Stratcom told reporter Mikael Thalen of the Daily Dot that the tweet was no secret message, and was instead was the result of a Stratcom social media editor working from home.
"The Command's Twitter manager, while in a telework status, momentarily left the Command's Twitter account open and unattended. His very young child took advantage of the situation and started playing with the keys and and unknowingly, posted the tweet," Stratcom official Kendall Cooper said in a letter Thalen posted on line.
Thirty minutes later Stratcom tweeted to disregard the previous tweet, and then both of those messages were deleted.