The Twitter account of India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, was hacked today. The hackers put up false information claiming that the government had chosen to adopt and legalize all cryptocurrencies and share 500 Bitcoin tokens amongst its citizens. Two days ago, the Prime Minister had been in attendance in a virtual global meeting on Democracy.
Details Of The Cyber Attack
Apart from offering technological solutions to help other countries curb electoral malpractice, the prime minister also called for a global regulatory framework on cryptocurrencies and social media. The Prime Minister cited that these revolutionary technologies have impacted electoral processes recently. Modi disclosed that The governments of the world must implement structures to ensure that these technologies do not bring down democracies but strengthen them.
The Indian parliament, in its Lok Sabha Winter Session, is yet to finish its deliberation on cryptocurrency regulations. While the Winter Session is still ongoing, cybercriminals hijacked the Prime Minister’s Twitter account today to pronounce Bitcoin an accepted currency in India, declaring it a futuristic move. The tweet and possibly the attack happened at around midnight in India.
A Twitter user with the name Priya was one of the first to notice that there was something off about the tweet by the Prime Minister. Priya quoted the tweet twice to notify others that the account had been compromised. In the next quoted tweet, she added further that fraudsters were behind the tweet.
The tweet made by the scammers had a link attached for unsuspecting victims to register to get their share of the promised primary cryptocurrency. The attack meant that the Prime Minister’s account had been compromised to conduct a crypto scam twice now. Moments after the attack, the tweet was removed, and Modi’s official account confirmed the breach.
Narendra Modi confirmed that the Twitter account was hacked for a short while. He said Twitter had been notified of the breach. The Prime Minister disclosed that the account was now secure. It added that all should ignore any tweets during the time. The previous attack on the account occurred in September of last year. In the attack last year, the hackers implored people to give to support the nation’s COVID-19 relief effort.
The State Of Cryptocurrency Regulations In India
Currently, the Indian parliament is discussing the nation’s cryptocurrency bill. The bill has caused quite a stir among retail traders and investors in the cryptocurrency space. The leaked description of the bill has been perceived as very similar to the one that previously saw the digital asset ban. The description puts forward a motion to ban all private cryptocurrencies. What the parliament means by private cryptocurrency remains unclear, and the ensuing panic led to the crypto market crash in India.
The one-time finance minister of the country, Subhash Garg, has since come out to dispel fears among crypto enthusiasts. The government official who crafted the crypto bill came forward to say it was simply a misinterpretation. He said that the description was an error and nothing more.