The official Twitter account of the University Grants Commission (UGC) India was hacked on Sunday, apparently by scammers claiming to be affiliated with the Azuki NFT project.
The Twitter handle @ugc_india currently has around 2,96,000 followers on the microblogging platform. On Sunday morning, many of these followers woke up to find the verified Twitter account of UGC India posting bizarre tweets.
Notably, this is the third prominent Twitter account that has been hacked in the past two days including the UP Chief Minister’s Office and the Indian Meteorological Department of India.
The breach has come to notice when some unidentified hackers took control of UGC India’s Twitter account and posted a long thread of irrelevant tweets tagging numerous unknown persons across the world. The hacker has also used a cartoonist picture as the profile photo.
UGC India’s official Twitter account hacked. pic.twitter.com/t37ui8KNuC
— ANI (@ANI) April 9, 2022
UGC India’s Twitter account was hacked and restored; 3rd govt account was targeted in 2 days.
#UPDATE | UGC India’s official Twitter restored after it was hacked earlier today. pic.twitter.com/pdwnqsfKhx
— ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2022
Other Govt. Handle
The official Twitter handle of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s Office was hacked briefly in the early hours of Saturday, a senior officer said, asserting that the strictest action will be taken against those responsible.
A case was registered in this connection at the Cyber Crime police station in Lucknow.
“The account was hacked for around 29 minutes at night. The hackers posted around 400-500 tweets, and the account was suspended on grounds of unnatural activity,” the senior official told PTI.
Later, in a tweet in Hindi, the Uttar Pradesh government said, “There was an attempt by anti-social elements to hack the official Twitter account of the Chief Minister’s Office @CMOfficeUP at 12.30 am on April 9. Some tweets were posted by them which were recovered immediately.”
Strictest action will be taken against those responsible for this after an investigation of the case by cyber experts, it added.
IMD Twitter handle
The Twitter account of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has been hacked on Saturday. “In celebration of the reveal of the Beanz Official Collection, we have opened up an airdrop to all active NFT traders in the community for the next 2 hours!” the hackers tweeted from the handle.
It remains unclear who was behind the hacking. This comes as IMD’s account is generating traction for updates and forecasts on the heatwave in parts of the country.
India Meteorological Department’s Twitter account hacked pic.twitter.com/3Z9cvXuyFf
— ANI (@ANI) April 9, 2022
India Meteorological Department’s Director-General Mrutyunjay Mahapatra told ANI, “Our Twitter account has been hacked, we are trying to restore it.”
The hacker posted a malicious link, saying that they have opened up “an airdrop to all active NFT traders in the community for the next 2 hours!”
Twitter Account (@Indiametdept) of India Meteorological Department had been hacked this evening. It has now been restored. @PIB_India @moesgoi @DDNewslive
— India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) April 9, 2022
