Indian Prime Minister Twitter Hacked

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For a brief period in December 2021, the prime minister of India's Twitter account was breached and used to launch a bitcoin giveaway scam, claiming in the usual way that bitcoin would be given away to anyone who first sent a payment to a wallet set up for the event. This lasted for roughly an hour before the tweet was removed. It is unclear how many individuals fell for the scheme.

This exchange or platform is based in India, or the incident targeted people primarily in India.

About Twitter

"In September [2021], El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt the cryptocurrency as legal tender and last month, the country's president Nayib Bukele said he planned to build the world's first "Bitcoin City" — funded initially by Bitcoin-backed bonds."

"Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi" "is a prolific tweeter and is the world's most popular incumbent politician on the platform, with more than 73 million followers on his main account."

"In late November, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told parliament that the government had no plans of recognizing Bitcoin as a currency, adding that it did not collect data on domestic bitcoin transactions."

"Earlier on Saturday, Modi spoke about cryptocurrencies at a virtual "Summit for Democracy" hosted by US President Joe Biden. In his address, he said that emerging technologies like cryptocurrencies should be used to empower democracy, not undermine it."

"We must also jointly shape global norms for emerging technologies like social media and cryptocurrencies so that they are used to empower democracy, not to undermine it," Modi said.

"The official Twitter account for India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, was briefly taken over by hackers and used to promote a bitcoin giveaway scam." "Several Twitter users shared screenshots of the tweet put out from the Indian Prime Minister's personal twitter account, @narendramodi, when it was compromised, according to CNN's affiliate News-18."

"A swiftly deleted tweet from his main @narendramodi handle said the Indian government had officially bought 500 bitcoin and was "and distributing them to all residents of the country", along with a scam link." "The fraudulent message in question said that India had declared bitcoin legal tender and was conducting a giveaway to celebrate the move."

"India has officially adopted bitcoin as legal tender. The government has officially bought 500 BTC and is distributing them to all residents of the country."

"No sooner had the hack been noticed than the government sprung into action, writing to Twitter about the incident and asking users to ignore the tweet." "About an hour later, another Tweet emerged from the official handle of the Prime Minister’s Office [PMO] clarifying that the PM’s Twitter account was restored after it was “very briefly compromised” and that the incident had been raised with the social networking firm." "The prime minister's office later said via its own Twitter account that Modi's account was "briefly compromised" and was later secured."

"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."

"Twitter did not specify the exact time at which Modi’s account was breached and when they were notified about the matter. In addition to that, there was no response with regards to the time taken to bring down the fake post, and if the social platform deploys any extra level of security standards for major public accounts such as those of political leaders, governments heads, and others."

"Sunday's hack ironically comes as India prepares to clamp down on a flourishing cryptocurrency trade with a new law likely to be introduced in parliament this month." "Details of the legislation remain unclear but the government has flagged a broad ban on private digital currencies."

"Last month, Modi's government said that it was preparing to introduce a bill that would "prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India." But the description of the bill also says it would allow for "certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses.""

"Modi himself said last month that cryptocurrencies could "spoil our youth" and the central bank has repeatedly warned they could pose "serious concerns on macroeconomic and financial stability"."

This exchange or platform is based in India, or the incident targeted people primarily in India.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - Indian Prime Minister Twitter Hacked

Date	Event	Description
December 11th, 2021 2:48:00 PM MST	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Technical Details

This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost is unknown.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.