Back in July, many Twitter handles of prominent celebrities, officials, and even organizations were subject to a hack. The hackers sought Bitcoin and almost all the hacked accounts demanded prominent cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum [ETH], and XRP. It seems like a new set of hackers have followed the footsteps of the former as the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi was the latest victim of a similar attack.
History Repeats Itself
This time, however, the Twitter account of the Indian Prime Minister’s personal website was used to entice people into donating cryptocurrency. Earlier today, an array of tweets seeking Bitcoin specifically as a donation to the PM’s National Relief Fund for COVID-19.
The addresses mentioned in the tweets were 0xae073db1e5752faff169b1ede7e8e94bf7f80be6 which consisted about 0.0000696969 ETH [$0.03] as the final balance annd the other address, 14DuwVLiHLcMqhtMqe4bRcfNGoYPcEaGYt had a total of 0.00006900 BTC [$0.78] as its final balance.
Unlike the previous attack back in July, the hacker here pointed out that the Prime Minister’s personal website account was hacked. The hackers that were carrying this attack out used the alias “John Wick.” The hackers further tweeted,
“Yes this account is hacked by John Wick (hckindia@tutanota.com). We have not hacked Patym Mall.”
The hacker reportedly tweeted this in light of the recent infringement that stirred Patym Mall. Cyble, a cybersecurity platform revealed that a group behind the Patym Mall operated under the name, John Wick. However, the hackers asserted that they weren’t behind the hack of the e-commerce platform.
While the aforementioned tweets have been taken down from the Prime Minister’s account, officials are still probing the matter.
After the Supreme Court of India lifted the ban on cryptocurrencies, the crypto industry started garnering more traction throughout the country. As the country is diving deep into digitalization, notable platforms across the globe have been viewing India as a comprehensive profitable market.
Several prominent personalities like the former President of the United States, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, and several others were victims of the attack during July. The hackers caught the attention of the followers of these celebrities via a crypto giveaway. However, officials were quick enough to arrest three individuals behind the hack, while the fourth one is still on the run.