More Than 600 Govt Social Media Accounts Hacked Since 2017: Union Minister Anurag Thakur Tells Lok Sabha

According to his written response, 175 accounts were hacked in 2017, 114 in 2018, 61 in 2019, 77 in 2020, 186 in 2021, and 28 so far this year.

Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur. (Source: Getty Images)

New Delhi: More than 600 central government social media accounts have been hacked in the last five years, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

In response to a question on the hacking of official Twitter handles and e-mail accounts, the minister stated that 641 such accounts had been compromised since 2017, news agency PTI reported.

According to his written response, 175 accounts were hacked in 2017, 114 in 2018, 61 in 2019, 77 in 2020, 186 in 2021, and 28 so far this year.

According to Thakur, the material was sent to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) (MeitY).

In response to a question on what efforts the government is taking to avoid such attacks in the future, the minister stated that CERT-In was established to improve cyber security. It regularly releases alerts and advisories regarding the most recent cyber risks and remedies to guarantee the safe use of digital technology.

"CERT-In has issued 68 advisories for organizations and users for data security and mitigating fraudulent activities. On observing compromise of websites/ e-mail/ Twitter accounts, CERT-In notifies the affected entities along with remedial actions to be taken. CERT-In coordinates incident response measures with affected entities, service providers, sectoral Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) as well as Law Enforcement Agencies," the minister was quoted by PTI in its report.

CERT-In operates an automated cyber threat exchange platform for gathering, analysing, and sharing targeted warnings with organisations across sectors in order for them to take proactive threat mitigation activities.

He stated that security guidelines for consumers to safeguard their PC, mobile/smartphones, and avoid phishing assaults have been provided.

"CERT-In has set up the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) to generate necessary situational awareness of existing and potential cyber security threats. Phase-I of NCCC is operational," the minister said.

(With PTI Inputs)