The White House is known for many things: home to the US President, the bowling alley installed by Nixon, the incessant alien attacks in movies.

However in a twist straight from a Hollywood thriller, The White House recently faced a new threat – from within.

Clear and present danger?

In 2013 an anonymous Twitter account called @NatSecWonk (short for National Security Wonk) surfaced, publishing highly critical posts about the Obama administration.

Some of @NatSecWonk's favourite subjects included Secretary of State John Kerry and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, in addition to Daily Beast reporters Eli Lake and Josh Rogin.

Twittergate

Over 22 months @NatSecWonk built up a small but engaged community, mainly consisting of Washington journalists, analysts and political staffers.

One of @NatSecWonk's tweets reportedly resulted in a White House employee being fired. 

Executive decision

It turns out the person behind the account was National Security Council staffer Jofi Joseph, whose tweets ruffled some very well-connected feathers.

Once his identity was discovered Joseph deleted the account and apologised for this actions, explaining he created @NatSecWonk as a parody account.

The apology wasn't enough to save Joseph's career, who was later fired from his position at the White House.

Presidential pardon

While Joseph's actions were more an irritant than anything else, it's another lesson that no matter how large your corporation (or famous your address), no-one is immune from potentially damaging social media actions of employees.

Even if you're the president. 

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