IRELAND: Unknown hackers gained access to the 'Indian Embassy in Ireland's' official Twitter account on Friday (October 14), and they temporarily assumed total control of it.
The miscreants altered the handle name from "India in Ireland (Embassy of India, Dublin)" to "Elon Musk" and the profile image from a photo of a SpaceX rocket. It's interesting that they decided against changing the @IndiainIreland Twitter handle because doing so would have resulted in the instant loss of the verified status (blue tick). Soon later, a tweet regarding Bitcoin was published and pinned to the hijacked Twitter account's profile. It stated, "It's time to pump BTC," in a tweet. I'm announcing a 5,000 BTC and 5,000 ETH (Ethereum) donation to support our community.
“First come. First served: You can receive a gift only once. Please hurry up,” the twitter handle added. The hacked account also posted a shady link and asked people to visit the site.
However, the 'Indian Embassy in Ireland's' Twitter account was quickly taken over by Indian officials. The banner, pin tweet, and display image were immediately taken down. The Twitter handle's original name was likewise reinstated. The Indian embassy had not yet provided an explanation for the security lapse on the microblogging site as of the time of writing.
Screengrab of the ‘India in Ireland’ handle after it was restored
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