Hackers compromised the official Twitter account of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi. The cyberattackers were able to hack into the social media account on December 11 and tweeted messages to his more than 73 million followers. The messages falsely claimed that India would be adopting Bitcoin as its official currency and that the Indian government had bought 500 Bitcoin tokens and would distribute them across the country. The false statements included a link to a malicious website designed to appear as though it was part of the Bitcoin giveaway promotion. Shortly after the illegitimate tweet was posted, it was deleted from the account.

The fake tweet went against previous statements made by the Indian government that the country has no plans to recognize Bitcoin as a currency in the country. After the attack, the Office of the Prime Minister of India issued a tweet informing the public that the tweets were false and to disregard any communications shared by the perpetrators. Twitter stated that it had secured Modi’s account once it became aware of the unauthorized activity. No other accounts were compromised in the incident. An investigation of the attack has been opened by law enforcement to identify the attackers.

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