Account of Indian PM Modi's personal website hacked, confirms Twitter

Published September 3, 2020
Indian PM Narendra Modi's personal Twitter account, which was unaffected by this incident, has over 61 million followers. — Reuters/File
Indian PM Narendra Modi's personal Twitter account, which was unaffected by this incident, has over 61 million followers. — Reuters/File

Twitter confirmed on Thursday that an account of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal website was hacked with a series of tweets asking its followers to donate to a relief fund through cryptocurrency.

The incident comes after several Twitter accounts of prominent personalities were hacked in July.

Twitter said it was aware of the activity with Modi's website account and has taken steps to secure it.

“We are actively investigating the situation. At this time, we are not aware of additional accounts being impacted,” a Twitter spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

Modi's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the tweets posted on the account @narendramodi_in.

The account, with over 2.5 million followers, is the official Twitter handle for Modi's personal website and the Narendra Modi mobile application.

Modi's personal Twitter account, which was unaffected by this incident, has over 61 million followers.

The tweets, which have since been taken down, asked the followers to donate to the PM National Relief Fund through cryptocurrency.

Hackers had in July accessed Twitter's internal systems to hijack some of the platform's top voices including United States presidential candidate Joe Biden, former US President Barack Obama and billionaire Elon Musk, and used them to solicit digital currency.

Faked tweets were sent from 45 accounts and the hackers accessed private messages in 36 and downloaded Twitter data from seven, the company said.

The hackers gained access to the system by tricking a handful of employees into giving up their credentials, according to Twitter.

Twitter said it had not found any link between the Modi hack and the July breach.


With additional input from AFP.

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