The official Twitter account of the University Grants Commission (UGC) India was hacked on Sunday, apparently by scammers claiming to be affiliated with the Azuki NFT project.
The Twitter handle @ugc_india currently has around 2,96,000 followers on the microblogging platform. On Sunday morning, many of these followers woke up to find the verified Twitter account of UGC India posting bizarre tweets.
The hackers changed the profile picture as well as the cover photo of the account to advertise anime-style characters known as Azukis. Launched just a couple of months ago, the Azuki collection of non-fungible tokens is currently among the world’s best-selling NFTs, according to Forbes.
UGC India’s Twitter account was restored soon after being hacked - but screenshots circulating online show that the hackers managed to share a number of tweets while they had control of the account.
The hacking appears to be in line with a recent spate of similar crypto scams. According to cryptocurrency website Decrypt, the scam has seen the hijacking of several verified Twitter accounts. The hackers changed the profile picture and bios in the account to suggest that it belongs to one of the co-creators of the Azuki project.
The hackers then sent out links promising Beanz NFTs. People who fell for the scam and connected their Ethereum wallets ultimately had NFTs stolen from their wallets.
According to news agency ANI, this is the third government account that has been targeted by hackers in the last two days. Before this, the accounts of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s Office and the Indian Meteorological Department of India were also hacked.
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