Oppn concerned over hacking of PM Modi's Twitter, says 'chinks in cybersecurity exposed'

Opposition parties on Sunday flagged concern over the hacking of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Twitter account saying that the incident had exposed 'chinks' in cybersecurity. Dubbing the occurrence as a cause for 'big concern', Congress leaders remarked that cybersecurity was as important as border security for the nation. 

Reacting to the incident, Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said, "Hacking of Twitter handle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an issue of big concern, worry and exposes the chinks in cyber security. With advancement and reliability on technology, policymakers must realise that cyber security is equally important as border, internal security."

Another Congress spokesperson, Shama Mohammed, said, "PM Modi's Twitter handle was hacked last night. This is a major security breach," adding, "If the government cannot adequately secure the account of the Prime Minister, how is it protecting the biometric Aadhaar data of crores of Indians which it insisted on collecting."

BJP's former ally Shiv Sena also weighed in on the matter, claiming that the hacking of PM Modi's account had 'exposed' the cybersecurity level in India. Shiv Sena deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Priyanka Chaturvedi said, "Prime Minister's account hacked briefly. Cyber security level exposed greatly."

PM Modi's personal Twitter account hacked briefly

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal account was hacked in the early hours of Sunday morning. According to several screenshots shared by users in the platform, PM Modi's personal account put out a tweet claiming "India has officially adopted bitcoin as legal tender".

The now-deleted tweet read, "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". 

According to Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the Twitter handle was compromised for a brief time and the account was immediately secured. The matter was also raised with Twitter. "In the brief period that the account was compromised, any Tweet shared must be ignored," the PMO's statement read.

This is not the first time that PM Modi's account has been hacked in connection to a Bitcoin scam. Earlier in September 2020, a similar kind of incident had taken place where a tweet sent through PM's official handle on Twitter asked followers for donations for the COVID-19 relief fund using cryptocurrency. 

(With agency inputs)