A hacker (or basically anyone else at this point) managed to "briefly compromise" the Twitter account of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently. The said person used the account to tweet a bogus claim that might've raised the hopes of Indian crypto enthusiasts.
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 02: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during the World Leaders' Summit "Accelerating Clean Technology Innovation and Deployment" session on day three of COP26 on November 02, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland.
According to Engadget, the alleged hacker tweeted that India now considers Bitcoin as a legal tender. Furthermore, the person also shared a link to a scam website which was, thankfully, broken.
The fake tweet allegedly said that India, aside from accepting Bitcoin, will also be distributing a total of 500 BTC (roughly $25 million USD at the coin's current value as of this writing) "to all residents of the country."
The hack was brief and wasn't considered too serious by the Prime Minister's office. But they did acknowledge that it happened, and confirmed that Twitter managed to immediately secure the politician's account.
Nobody knows who perpetrated the hack, or how they did it. The tweet has been deleted since.
Considering that Modi has over 70 million followers on the social media platform (as per CNN), the fake tweet could have gained a lot of traction, given the fact that Bitcoin (and crypto, in general) has been making waves globally.
However, it would have been out of character for the Indian government, who has staunchly opposed cryptocurrency as a whole.
Early this year, the nation has proposed a law that bans all private cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, reports Engadget. The proposal followed the country's rejection of crypto as a legal tender in 2018.
In place of crypto, the Indian government looks to establish its own digital currency which will be issued via the Reserve Bank of India.
This hacking incident follows news of El Salvador being the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender back in September.
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High-Profile Twitter Accounts Being Hacker Targets
This isn't the first time that the account of a high-profile individual has been hacked in order to push a pro-crypto (mostly pro-Bitcoin) agenda or scam.
Back in July 2020, a number of VIP Twitter accounts which included politicians and tech bigwigs were hacked to promote a Bitcoin scam, writes NPR.org. Among the profiles hacked were those of former US President Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Big Tech figures Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
According to Twitter, the hack was due to a so-called "social engineering attack" that targeted the social media giant's employees. These employees, as per the company, were targeted specifically for their direct access to internal systems and tools, which likely were what the hackers used to breach the VIP accounts.
As per this tweet, the attack was perpetrated using a technique called "phone spear phishing."
Hours after the cybersecurity breach, the affected accounts were locked down-with some even getting temporarily blocked from posting or password resets.
The cybersecurity breach on Indian PM Narendra Modi is an indication that criminals are getting even bolder online, allegedly more so with their pro-crypto agenda.
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce