Hackers who dare – really dare – anything. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, had his Twitter account hacked yesterday. The attackers used the opportunity to promote a Bitcoin (BTC) scam.
Indian PM’s Twitter account attacked
Those who visited the Indian Prime Minister’s Twitter account yesterday were surprised to learn two things. On the one hand, India has reportedly adopted Bitcoin as its legal tender, and on the other, the government plans to distribute BTC to the country’s residents
(Source: Ben Schaack via Twitter)
The tweet was obviously a fake. It was based on recent decisions by El Salvador, which adopted Bitcoin as its legal tender this year, and which had distributed $30 in BTC to its residents a few months ago.
The message was quickly deleted. It is not known if anyone was victimised by the scam. The ministry simply said that the Twitter account had been “very briefly compromised”, and that tweets shared in the interim should be ignored.
No adoption of Bitcoin in India
Would this be a habit for the Indian Prime Minister? In December 2020, his Twitter account had already been compromised. This time, hackers had invited users to send bitcoins, allegedly to help the country fight the Covid-19 crisis
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
Prime Minister Modi’s twitter account was hacked not once but twice by Bitcoin bhakts. In Dec 2020 & Dec 2021. pic.twitter.com/jwNk3ljnJN
– Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) December 12, 2021
Of course, no head of state – not even the impulsive Nayib Bukele – would announce the adoption of Bitcoin without advance warning, so any such statement should be steered clear of… Especially since India has not been particularly soft on cryptocurrencies lately.
