A Twitter account linked to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been hijacked by hackers who used their access to trick users into sending them cryptocurrencies.
According to Nikkei Asian Review, the hackers managed to hijack the account used for Modi’s personal website and the Narendra Modi mobile application, which has over 2.5 million followers. Their tweets asked for cryptocurrency donations for the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF).
The PMNRF receives donations in fiat currency and uses them to provide relief to the families of those killed in natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes. It’s currently unclear how much the hackers received in donations, or whether they even managed to receive any cryptoassets.
Speaking to Nikkei, a Twitter spokeswoman revealed the microblogging platform was aware of the activity on the account as has “taken steps to secure it.” She was quoted as saying:
We are actively investigating the situation. At this time, we are not aware of additional accounts being impacted.
Modi’s personal Twitter account, it’s worth noting, has over 61 million followers and was unaffected by the hack. The tweets published asking for crypto donations to the PMNRF have also been taken down at press time.
The hijack notably comes less than two months after Twitter suffered a major security breach that saw hackers access its internal tools, and use them to promote a fake cryptocurrency giveaway using various high-profile accounts.
The hackers hijacked the accounts of major cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance and Coinbase, but also used the accounts of U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, former U.S. President Barack Obama and billionaire Elon Musk to promote their giveaway. Companies like Apple and Uber also saw the hackers use their accounts.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, later on, commented that the Twitter hack was net positive for the cryptocurrency space, as it put BTC in the headlines of major news outlets throughout the world and “raises awareness for the need for stronger security on internet platforms.”
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