Twitter handle of UP CMO hacked for nearly 30 minutes, case registered

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (File Photo)

The official Twitter handle of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) was hacked briefly on Saturday, a senior officer said, asserting that strictest action will be taken against those responsible.

A case was registered in connection with the matter at Cyber Crime police station in Lucknow. The hackers replaced the profile picture with a cartoon and posted hundreds of tweets before the handle, @CMOfficeUP, was recovered.

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The UP CMO’s Twitter handle has over 40 lakh followers. "The account was hacked for around 29 minutes at night. The hackers posted around 400-500 tweets and the account was suspended on grounds of unnatural activity," the senior official told PTI.

Later, in a tweet in Hindi, the Uttar Pradesh government said, "There was an attempt by anti-social elements to hack the official Twitter account of the Chief Minister’s Office, @CMOfficeUP, at 12.30 am on April 9. Some tweets were posted by them which were recovered immediately." Strictest action will be taken against those responsible for this after an investigation of the case by cyber experts, it added.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who is in Gorakhpur, said the concerned agencies are investigating the matter. Superintendent of Police, Cyber Crime, Triveni Singh said here that a case has been registered under the IT Act against unknown persons.