Just a few days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter handle was compromised. Some smart hackers managed to breach the defences of one of the safest media platforms. For a few minutes, they got access to the handle of the PM of India.
But they used it to promote cryptocurrency.
It was unbelievable that PM’s Twitter handle was used to promote Bitcoin.
“India has officially adopted bitcoin as legal tender,” the tweet said, as posted by the hackers on his account. “The government has officially bought 500 BTC and is distributing them to all residents of the country.”
No matter how implausible it sounds but it tells a lot about the hacking culture in India. Somewhere, this also highlights the variety of actors that are trying to break into computer systems.
What becomes most obvious about this hacking is that the hackers were more mischievous than malicious. Pitching Bitcoin has become a funny prank rather than any other crime.
In 2020 also, more than a hundred famous accounts were breached including those of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Kanye West among others.
Hackers – a big threat
After getting the access, these attackers promoted a Bitcoin scam to millions of these victims’ followers.
What is more important to note here is the fact that more hacks go unnoticed or unreported than we ever get to hear about.
Moreover, what should concern us as a society is that one of the most powerful outlets in the world was once again breached; it allowed unauthorised access to the media equivalent of the nuclear codes.
We should do a good checking of our technology, the firewall system that protects accounts from hackers.
How does a firewall work? It uses packet filtering, the packets attempting to enter the network are run against a group of filters. These filters remove the packets that match certain identified threats and allow the others through to their intended destination.
Our experts should attempt to keep away the state backing or terrorist links that could potentially harm the interest of the country.
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