Kiran Bedi, Anupam Kher Twitter accounts hacked on Safer Internet Day

Twitter accounts of Puducherry Governor Kiran Bedi, actor Anupam Kher, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav and Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta were hacked by pro-Pakistan Turkey-based cyber group Ayyildiz Tim.

One of the tweets read “we are protesting the continuous closure of our social media accounts! As long as you do not remove the embargo that you apply to us, all social media users around the world are at risk!”

Another tweet which contained bits of a post in Turkish said, “Your account has been hacked by the Turkish cyber army Ayyildiz Tim. Your DM correspondence and important data have been captured! Turkiye & Pakistan (heart emoji).”

In response to PTI’s query, Ms. Bedi said she was on a flight and after landing, she got to know that her Twitter account was hacked.

“...there were concerns on my WhatsApp messages as what kind of terror messages were coming from my Twitter account. I could not even log on to my personal account. The user name has also been hacked,” she said in a message. Her account is yet to be restored.

Veteran actor Kher, who is currently in Los Angeles, said he got to know about the breach from his friends in India and had alerted the microblogging site about the incident.

“Got a DM yesterday from Mr Swapan Dasgupta’s account about a link. A first from him. So opened it. Have spoken to Twitter already,” Kher told PTI over a text message.

Mr. Dasgupta’s account was also compromised. A note stating “Caution: This account is temporarily restricted. You’re seeing this warning because there has been some unusual activity from this account. Do you still want to view it?”

When contacted, Twitter said its “teams are working to resolve an issue affecting a small number of Indian users.”

“We will notify affected account holders directly. Reminder: do not click on links in DMs coming from unknown accounts...,” it added.

Interestingly, this hacking incidents occurred on Safer Internet Day, organised each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones.