PM Modi’s Twitter account hacked; company confirms action taken to secure @narendramodi_in

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's additional Twitter account which is linked to his personal website was hacked on the intervening night of September 2 and 3. Tweets appeared urging followers to make donations to 'PM National Relief Fund for COVID-19' through cryptocurrency. This is the @narendramodi_in handle - his third handle apart from @narendramodi and @PMOIndia.

Below are screenshots of the hacking of PM Modi's Twitter account: 

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Twitter confirms PM Modi's account compromised

The verified Twitter account, which is linked to PM Modi's personal website, has over 2.5 million followers. A Twitter spokesperson has confirmed having knowledge of the issue in response to the media query. Twitter said the microblogging website is taking steps to secure the compromised account. The tweets urging for donations and other related tweets have now disappeared, which seems to be the counteraction taken by Twitter over the breach.

"We are aware of this activity and have taken steps to secure the compromised account. We are actively investigating the situation. At this time, we are not aware of additional accounts being impacted", said Twitter spokesperson Twitter account of PM Modi’s personal website hacked.

Weeks After Global Twitter Hacking

The hacking of PM Modi's Twitter account comes after the accounts of several noted personalities across the political and industrial spectrum, mainly US, were hacked in July. Jeff Bezos, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates were among the once whose accounts were hacked in July, with offers to give back $2000 for every $1000 transferred to the particular bitcoin account. Even Twitter's own account was not spared by the hackers then.

Screenshot of Twitter Support hacked in July: 

The US authorities had then booked 17-year-old and 20-year-old boys from Florida and a 19-year-old from Britain for being complicit to the Twitter breach in July. 

The Government of India has then issued notice to Twitter to seek details of the high profile account hacking. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has asked Twitter to furnish full details of the global hack, the number of Indian users affected and data impacted.

As PM Modi's Twitter was hacked, the self-confessed hacker also revealed that it wasn't he who hacked the Paytm Mall. This was in reference to cybersecurity firm Cyble's claim on August 30, that a hacker group called John Wick (named after Keanu Reeves' character in the film series of the same name) was behind a data breach at Paytm Mall, an e-commerce wing of the Paytm payments app. Cyble had also claimed that the hacker group demanded ransom, however, Paytm said it did not find any data breach in its system during its investigation.

PM Modi has three accounts on Twitter, namely: @narendramodi which has about 61.8 million followers and is one of the most followed accounts in the world. The second account is operated by his office, i.e. @PMOIndia which has about 38.4 million followers, and the third one was the twitter account for his personal website narendramodi.in which was hacked on early Thursday. 

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