Armed raiders break into Coronation Street star’s home after Twitter security bungle

Helen Flanagan, the British soap starlet, who has carved a name out for herself by not wearing very much in gentleman’s magazines, has found herself in the paper’s once again – although she would surely wish that she wasn’t.

22-year-old Ms Flanagan, made famous by the UK’s tabloid newspapers after her appearances in “Coronation Street” and “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!”, was confronted by three armed raiders just before midnight at her house in Alderley Edge, Cheshire.

According to media reports, the robbers stole items of jewellery and a mobile phone.

Flanagan’s boyfriend, Manchester City footballer Scott Sinclair, was out at the time.

What’s interesting to me is that Ms Flanagan announced via Twitter, in the hours before the robbery, that her partner wasn’t at home.

So super tired today :( which makes me emotional sensitive and mental ha - can't wait to have my bf home x

The jury is out as to whether the raiders will have been encouraged to target the property after seeing the Actress/Model/Writer/Aspiring Presenter’s message on Twitter. After all, Alderley Edge is famous for having its fair share of expensive homes owned by celebrities and footballers – making it an attractive target for burglars.

Regardless, others could do with learning an important security lesson from this incident. You should be careful what you post on Twitter, as the whole world can potentially see it.

Don’t, for instance, announce on Twitter that you are at Terminal 5 at Heathrow, looking forward to your two week holiday in the sun – as that’s an open invitation to thieves. Instead, wait until you are *back* in the country – and then feel free to tell everyone what a wonderful time you have just had.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.