A fake Northern Ireland secretary email which prompted a Twitter exchange with Elon Musk appears to have been issued due to an "archaic" government communications system, a cyber security expert has said.
Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris had to deny he had resigned after a sham statement was emailed to the press on the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) circulation list.
He dismissed the email as "complete and utter tosh" before challenging Twitter's new chief executive to "eliminate fake news".
Read more: Dozens of Stormont questions go unanswered after caretaker ministers removed from office
Mr Musk responded directly to the tweet in which he had been tagged, posting: "What does a tosh look like?"
It is understood the NIO had an email address which, if emailed, erroneously circulated the message to a list of press contacts.
The issue has existed for months, with the media occasionally receiving unsolicited emails sent by individuals who had used the address in a bid to contact the NIO.
Until now the error only meant the press list mistakenly received emails sent to the NIO address by PR staff and journalists from other outlets.
But on Wednesday night the NIO address circulated a message from an anonymous Gmail account which included fake quotes from Mr Heaton-Harris citing reasons for his alleged resignation.
A short time later, a legitimate email was sent by the NIO with the subject line: “Fake email this evening." A spokeswoman said an email had been sent with a "fake quote from the Secretary of State".
She asked members of the media to "disregard this email which is not a verified Government account".
Kevin Curran, a cyber security professor at Ulster University, said the issue appeared to be a "process error".
He told Belfast Live: "They should have stopped the use of that email list.
"What you could do is have a whitelist of anyone who is allowed to send to that address. It should be pre-approved. It's not rocket science whatsoever."
Prof Curran said it appeared to be a case of "misinformation" rather than a major cyber security threat.
"It's like an archaic system they have really, being able to do that," he added.
Prof Curran said it appeared the NIO email system was a "free-for-all" and "not fit for purpose in this day and age".
"So any other organisation following this approach, as long as someone knows the email address, they have to have some kind of authentication or authorisation process."
The National Cyber Security Centre is understood to have assessed the fake email as an example of a low-sophistication impersonation and presenting a low risk to recipients' cyber security.
An NIO spokeswoman said: "We do not comment on security matters."
The confusion came after Mr Heaton-Harris extended the deadline for calling a fresh Stormont election to January 19.
Mr Heaton-Harris also said he would cut MLA wages and take “limited but necessary steps” to enable Stormont departments to deliver public services in the absence of a devolved government.
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