Hacking of PM Modi's personal website's Twitter handle not related to earlier attacks

The hacking of the Twitter handle associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal website was not related to the hacks of high profile accounts in July earlier this year. According to the early investigation by Twitter, the account was most likely compromised exploiting possible vulnerabilities from the user's end.

"As per our investigation, this was not due to a compromise of Twitter's systems or service" Twitter sources familiar with the development told India Today.

Twitter was informed about the hack following a series of suspicious tweets posted by the compromised account asking people to donate money in the form of untraceable crypto-currency. This led to the restoration of the account resulting in the deletion of the said tweets.

One of the messages posted on Twitter account of PM Modi's personal website read: "I appeal to you all to donate generously to PM National Relief Fund for Covid-19, Now India begin with crypto currency, Kindly Donate eth to 0xae073DB1e5752faFF169B1ede7E8E94bF7f80Be6."

"We're aware of this activity and have taken steps to secure the compromised account. We are actively investigating the situation. At this time, we are not aware of additional accounts being impacted," a Twitter spokesperson had said in an emailed statement on Thursday.

Internal investigation by the social media platform has revealed that the pattern of attack was different from the July hack which saw accounts of Uber, Apple, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and several others, being compromised from Twitter's end. "There is no indication or evidence of any correlation between this account compromise and the incident that took place in July," Twitter sources said.

While several reports described the hack as a ransomware attack, India Today has learnt that no ransom was paid to the hackers to retrieve the account.

Also read: Twitter account of PM Modi's personal website hacked

Also read: PM Modi 2nd most followed leader on Twitter after Donald Trump but with wider reach