The Twitter account of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was hacked, with a post claiming that India had adopted bitcoin as legal cash and would distribute it to all citizens.
The message was quickly deleted, and his office stated that the account had been hacked for a limited period of time.
Mr.Modi's Twitter account has been hacked for the second time.
He's an avid tweeter with over 70 million followers, the most of any world leader.
The Indian government had officially purchased 500 bitcoin and was "distributing them to all residents of the country," according to a deleted tweet from his Twitter @narendramodi handle.
His account was hacked last year, and a tweet requesting people to give to a Phone Covid assistance fund was sent out.
The latest hack comes as India prepares to crack down on the expanding cryptocurrency market, with a new law expected to be introduced in parliament later this month.
The user put out a series of tweets urging followers to give cryptocurrency to a relief fund.
Twitter confirmed that it was aware of the behaviour and that it has taken steps to safeguard the account.
Following similar attacks on US presidential candidate Joe Biden and Tesla founder Elon Musk in July, this is the latest high-profile Twitter security violation.
The account is the official Twitter handle for Mr.Modi's personal website, and it has over 2.5 million followers.
Mr.Modi's personal Twitter account was hacked for a brief period early Sunday, prompting the Centre's cyber security wing CERT-In to order a high-level investigation into the incident, which follows a similar breach in September last year in which an account linked to the Prime Minister's personal website was compromised.
Hackers sent out a tweet from the Prime Minister's Twitter account, which has over 73.4 million followers, saying that India had "formally recognised bitcoin as legal cash." "The government has officially acquired 500 BTC and is distributing them to all residents of the country," the Tweet stated, sharing a link and urging people to "hurry up."
The government reacted quickly after learning of the attack, writing to Twitter to inform users of the event and requesting them to disregard the message.
"We're looking into the problem right now. We are not aware of any other accounts that have been affected at this time "In an emailed response to the BBC, a Twitter official said.
The tweets, which have since been removed, requested for cryptocurrency donations to the PM National Relief Fund.
"We're looking into the problem right now. We are not aware of any other accounts that have been affected at this time "In an emailed response to the BBC, a Twitter official said.
"It appears that the account was not compromised due to any breach of Twitter's systems," Twitter said after conducting internal checks into the situation.
Top government officials, on the other hand, have launched an investigation into the hack, with the country's cybersecurity nodal agency, CERT-In, joining the fray.
Sources told TOI that officials from the cyber security branch and other agencies have sought information from Twitter, as well as looking into probable hacking syndicates and organisations that function as separate entities or originate from nations hostile to India's interests.
The verified Twitter account of Modi's personal website @narendramodi in was hacked (again in the early hours) on September 3 last year, as gate-crashers demanded contributions in the name of Covid-19 relief efforts, however through bitcoins.
The tweets, which have since been removed, request.
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