In what appears to be a case of hacking, two photographs of Pakistan’s flag and the neighbouring country’s president Mamnoon Hussain were posted on the Twitter account of India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Syed Akbaruddin. The hackers claimed they were a “Turkish cyber army”.
The Missing Blue Tick
The pictures were posted early on 14 January. Interestingly, the “blue tick” that marks a verified account also disappeared at the time. According to reports, the Twitter handle was also changed.
Twitter took note of this suspicious activity and blocked the account. The account was later restored along with the blue tick and the questionable tweets were also removed.
Cyber Hacking: India and the World
In 2016, a total of 199 government websites were hacked in India, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told the Parliament. In fact, more than 700 websites under the Indian government were hacked from the period between 2013 to 2016.
In January 2016, the website of the National Security Guard (NSG), the Indian special forces unit combating terror activities, was also hacked posing unprecedented threat to national security. The website was, however, blocked immediately by the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT.IN).
Addressing the press on 13 January, Army Chief Bipin Rawat also focused on the increasing threat of cyber and information warfare, adding that the Indian security forces are concentrating more in that area.
(With ANI inputs)
Also Read: Indian Government Cyber Cell Warns of Hacking Attempts from China
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