Probe Into Hacking Of PMO Twitter Handle: IT Ministry To Question Twitter & Google, Says Report

Computer Emergency Response System (Cert-In), the national nodal agency for monitoring cyber security incidents and threats will approach Twitter and Google in its investigation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi | PTI

New Delhi: In its investigation into the hacking of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter account, Computer Emergency Response System (Cert-In), the national nodal agency for monitoring cyber security incidents and threats, will approach Twitter and Google.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter account on Sunday was hacked for a brief time after a tweet on Bitcoin was posted.

According to the sources of the publication Indian Express, Twitter will be questioned about how the account was not flagged for breach by its automated systems when someone else attempted to log in.

Apart from Twitter, Google will be called to furnish details of the Blogspot account linked to the Bitcoin tweet, according to the sources.

“We will ask Twitter and Google for their version of the incident. Cert-In is expected to submit its probe report to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology soon,” an IT Ministry official told the publication. 

On its part, Twitter said: “As per our investigation to date, it appears that the account was not compromised due to any breach of Twitter’s systems.”

In its response to the publication, the official of the micro-blogging site assured that it has lines of communication opened with the PM’s Office round the clock and the teams had taken necessary steps to secure the compromised account as soon as we became aware of suspicious activity.

“Our investigation has revealed that there are no signs of any other impacted accounts at this time,” the official added.

On Sunday at 2:11 am Sunday, Modi’s account tweeted, “India has officially adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender”.

“The government has officially bought 500 BTC and is distributing them to all residents of the country,” it said.

The tweet also shared a link to a blog, with a message reading: “The future has come today”.

An hour later, a subsequent tweet from the official handle of the Prime Minister’s Office said the Prime Minister’s Twitter handle was “very briefly compromised” and that the matter had been raised with Twitter.

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

PMO’s account has been compromised for the second time in less than two years and tweets with links to cryptocurrency have been shared.

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

The latest hack comes at a time when the government is poised to bring in a Bill to prohibit “all private cryptocurrencies in India” with “certain exceptions”.