THE SNP’s head of digital has said that unknown actors “repeatedly” tried to hack his work and social media accounts during the Scottish elections.
Ross Colquhoun, who has been the SNP’s head of digital communications, content and marketing since late 2014, said he could not remember seeing anything like the attempted hacks of his accounts during his time with the party.
It comes after a French government report said that an Israeli firm named BlackCore had meddled in the Scottish parliament elections, specifically targeting the SNP and John Swinney.
Viginum, France’s service for vigilance and protection against foreign digital interference, said that hundreds of fake accounts had targeted the SNP on social media in an operation that ended on May 8, the day after Scots went to the polls.
On social media, Colquhoun drew links to the “Sarwar bots” – inauthentic activity during the Scottish election campaign which saw Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s posts boosted by fake accounts.
He said: “Remember the Sarwar bots? This should be a bigger story than it currently is. Israel appears to have interfered with the Scottish election, according to French authorities.”
Colquhoun then added: “Someone tried to hack both my work email and social media logins repeatedly during the Scottish election."
Asked for more detail, the SNP head of digital told The National: “It’s unusual for my work, personal and socials to be attacked simultaneously with attempts to access them. This all happened during the same week early in the Scottish election.
“The SNP, like most parties, experiences DDOS [Distributed Denial-of-Service] and other types of online attack regularly, however this type of personalised targeting is something I don’t think I’ve come across in over a decade of being the SNP’s head of digital communications, content and marketing.”
“DDOS and other online attacks are usually on the party’s website,” he added.
Former SNP MP Stewart McDonald, said the French government report “raises a lot of questions about external influence operations in democratic societies”.
“BlackCore a well known player in this field. We need a better response than just outrage and fury,” he added.
Both McDonald and Colquhoun further highlighted a report from the Social Market Foundation, published this month, which found that levels of misinformation on Twitter/X were higher in Scotland than other UK nations or regions.
Why does Scotland have the highest rates of local misinfo on X by a mile? pic.twitter.com/YhOAN0WEhH
— Theo Bertram (@theobertram) June 8, 2026
“The four geographic searches carried out in Scotland included by far the highest proportion of misinformation – 1 in 24 posts on X in these areas was, on average, fake news, including groups with and without misinformation,” the report said.
It found that Scotland’s rate of disinformation on X was 4.2%, far outstripping the second placed UK region, Yorkshire and the Humber, which was on 0.5%.
Speaking at a press conference alongside French prime minister Sebastien Lecornu, Viginum chief Marc-Antoine Brillant said technical analysis had led investigators to BlackCore, whose activities were then mapped in a detailed report.
“This modus operandi was not limited to municipal elections in France,” Brillant said. “It also appears to have been used to carry out foreign digital interference operations in other countries or regions, such as Angola, Togo, the elections in Scotland, and the 2025 municipal election in New York.”
“Our investigations did not make it possible to identify the sponsor or sponsors, if indeed they exist, behind this foreign digital interference,” Brillant added.
Israel’s embassy in Paris confirmed that France had made contact and said it was awaiting further details from the French investigation. “Israel has of course no intention to interfere in the French political process, be it at the national or municipal level,” it claimed.
