Indian Prime Minister has Twitter account hacked for second time

When the leader of your country makes an announcement via Twitter, there is going to be many people who take notice and, justifiably, take the tweet at face value.

After all, what are the chances of a president or prime minister getting their Twitter account hacked? Turns out, bigger than you would expect, after the account belonging to the Prime Minister of India got hacked… again!

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter account – with over 73 million followers – was once again posting unauthorised messages leading to scam websites. This time, the Prime Minister’s account was falsely claiming India was adopting Bitcoin as legal tender and urged users to click a link to get their hands on their share of 500 Bitcoins purchased by the Indian government (below.)

Whilst it is not immediately clear what type of scam this was (since the tweet and URL were quickly removed) it is likely it was a typical “cryptocurrency giveaway scam”. This is a scam whereby crooks – posing as well-known celebrities, politicians or businesspeople – will claim to double or triple any cryptocurrency a person sends to a particular cryptocurrency wallet. The very primitive scam works by simply never sending the promised cryptocurrency back to the victim, instead pocketing whatever is sent its way.

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In 2020 the Indian Prime Minister’s account was hacked to promote a fake COVID relief fund that resulted in well-meaning people “donating” money that ultimately went to cybercrooks.

Even heads of state can have their accounts compromised, so don’t assume a tweet or post is genuine just because it comes from someone high up in government. The same of course applies to celebrities and other well-known figures. If a post seems suspicious (i.e. a cryptocurrency “giveaway”) then you’re better off staying well away from it, regardless of who posted it.

In the meantime, we hope Narendra Modi himself is seriously considering some stronger security for his Twitter account, such as two-factor-authentication, because two hacks in two years for a head of state is hardly a good look.