In the recent news, the Twitter account of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “very briefly compromised,” as reported by his office, when a tweet was sent from the Indian PM’s account stating his country had embraced Bitcoin and would be distributing the digital currency.
“The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account has been immediately secured,” the Indian PM’s office said in a tweet on Sunday. “In the brief period that the account was compromised, any Tweet shared must be ignored,” officials added.
The Twitter handle of PM @narendramodi was very briefly compromised. The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account has been immediately secured.
In the brief period that the account was compromised, any Tweet shared must be ignored.
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) December 11, 2021
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Has More Than 75 Million Followers on Twitter
Furthermore, the said tweet stated that the Indian government had officially acquired 500 Bitcoins and was “distributing them to all residents of the country”, along with a fraud link. It was not immediately known how long the personal Twitter account of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which has over 73 million followers, was compromised. Twitter users captured screenshots of the since-deleted tweet.
Moreover, a Twitter spokesperson stated in an emailed statement that the platform took all essential measures to secure the hacked Twitter account of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as soon as it became conscious of the activity. An investigation uncovered no indications of any other impacted accounts, the spokesperson added.
Several Twitter Accounts of Notable Personalities Were Hacked Back in 2020
In addition to this, the Twitter account of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was previously briefly compromised in September 2020, when hackers asked followers in a thread of tweets to contribute to India’s National Relief Fund through digital currency. Several Twitter accounts of notable personalities were hacked in July 2020, including United States presidential nominee Joe Biden, former US President Barack Obama, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and were employed to demand cryptocurrency.
Two teenagers and a 22-year-old were charged with the hacking, as per the US Department of Justice. After swiping employee credentials and getting into Twitter’s systems, the hackers were able to target other workers who had access to account support tools, the corporation said.
Read more: Twitter Removed more than 3000 State-Backed Accounts
