I&B Ministry Twitter Account Hacked, Became 'Elon Musk'. Restored

In an hacking attempt, the official Twitter account of the ministry of information and broadcasting was renamed as 'Elon Musk' followed by tweets saying "great job".

I&B Ministry Twitter Account Hacked | Getty Images & Screenshot of MIB account hacked

New Delhi: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s (MIB) official Twitter account has been hacked on Wednesday within a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter account was compromised. 

However, the ministry was quick to inform users that the account has been restored. In a tweet, the ministry wrote, “The account has been restored."

The account @Mib_india has been restored. This is for the information of all the followers.

— Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (@MIB_India) January 12, 2022

In a hacking attempt, the account was renamed as 'Elon Musk' followed by tweets saying "great job". The ministry, however, restored the account quickly along with the profile picture and deleted the tweets posted by the hackers.

The hackers even posted some malicious links from it. On December 12 last year, the personal Twitter handle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also hacked in which a tweet promoting cryptocurrency was posted from the handle. The account was restored shortly after the hacking.

In September 2020, the Twitter account linked to PM Modi’s personal website, and the app also flashed messages asking for donations to the Prime Minister’s Covid relief fund through cryptocurrency.

In fact, at the start of 2021, other accounts including the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), Indian Medical Association (IMA), and Mann Deshi Mahila Bank (a microfinance bank) were also hacked on January 3, according to the India Today report. In fact, the hackers renamed the handle 'Elon Musk' during that time as well.

It is to be noted that the fonts used to change the names of the profiles in both the incidences appear to be similar. The content of the tweet included the word 'AMAZZZING' which appeared to be the same, though the links tweeted in the two cases appeared to be different.