UGC India’s Official Twitter Account Hacked: Amid a spate of cyber-attacks on different agencies, the University Grants Commission (UGC)’s official Twitter account was hacked on Sunday. As per reports, the account was compromised on Saturday late at night but was quickly restored on Sunday. UGC's official Twitter account has over 2,96,000 followers. Recently, cyber-attacks against the official accounts of several government agencies of the Government of India were under attack. In fact, the latest hack on UGC India’s official handle (@@ugc_india) was the third such account to come under attack within the last 48 hours. Prior to this, Twitter accounts of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's Office and the Indian Meteorological Department of India (IMD) were also hacked.
Hack Identified after Irrelevant Tweets
The hacking of UGC India’s official Twitter account surfaced when the hackers sent out a series of irrelevant tweets from the handle. After taking control of @UGC-India account, the hackers also changed the official profile photo to that of a cartoon character and sent out a series of unrelated tweets. The irrelevant tweets were related to NFT traders with several unknown persons being tagged in them inviting others to join it.
UGC India's official Twitter account hacked. pic.twitter.com/t37ui8KNuC
— ANI (@ANI) April 9, 2022
Police Case Registered in Lucknow
Following a series of targeted attacks against the Twitter accounts held by the government agencies, a case has been filed against unknown persons in Lucknow. The case has been registered under the relevant sections of the IT Act at the cyber police station in Lucknow. The matter has been handed over to the cyber expert team from the DGP office in the state capital. Addressing concerns around increasing attacks, UP Government had said that it will l take strict action against those responsible for hacking the account.