The official Twitter account of government carrier Air India was hacked by suspected Turkish hackers early on Thursday, 15 March. The suspected Turkish group, which recently hacked accounts of prominent leaders like Kiren Bedi and Ram Madhav, is likely behind the cyber attack.
A senior Air India official told IANS that an investigation has been initiated into the matter.
Following the attack, the handle posted a series of tweets in Turkish and retweeted the handle @AyyıldızTim multiple times. The national carrier’s Twitter handle was also changed from @airindiain to @airindiaTR for sometime.
“Last minute important announcement: All our flights have been cancelled. From now we will fly with Turkish Airlines,” read a tweet. The handle’s cover image was also changed to a photo of a Turkish Airlines plane.
The cyber attack led to Air India losing its verification on Twitter for a while.
However, minutes after the attack the tweets in Turkish were deleted, the handle’s name was changed to @airindiain and the verification mark was back.
There is no official statement on the hacking from Air India so far.
Last month, Twitter accounts of Puducherry LG Kiren Bedi, Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Das Gupta, actor Anupam Kher and BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav were hacked, reportedly by a Turkish group.
On 6 February, Twitter responded to the hacking by saying, "Our teams are working to resolve an issue affecting a small number of Indian users. We will notify affected account holders directly."
In a similar incident last year, the website of Asian College of Journalism was also hacked.
(With inputs from IANS)
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