Twitter accounts of actor Anupam Kher, Ram Madhav hacked

NEWDELHI: Turkish hackers Ayyildiz Tim hacked Twitter accounts of actor Anupam Kher, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasgupta and Puducherry governor Kiran Bedi on Tuesday.

Messages with the words “Love Pakistan” were tweeted from the hacked accounts, causing consternation among Kher’s followers. The hacks occurred on Safer Internet Day, organised each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones.

The hackers changed Kher’s Twitter handle from “AnupamPKher” to “AnupamPKherTC”, resulting in it losing its blue tick denoting its verified status for a short while. The account was briefly suspended before being restored. Dasgupta’s account too was suspended, while Madhav’s account was available with several tweets posted by Ayyildiz Tim, which had targeted supporters of US President Donald Trump in January.

In a tweet on the hackings, Twitter Support said: “Our 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.” A tweet from Kher’s account after it was hacked said: “Your account has been hacked by the Turkish cyber army Ayyildiz Tim. Your DM correspondence and important data have been captured! I Love Pakistan.”

Tweets from the Pakistan government on Kashmir and Pakistani military’s official media arm were quoted from Das- gupta’s account with the caption “Love Pakistan”. Kher, who is in US, was quoted by ANI: “My Twitter account has been hacked. Just got few calls from friends in India about it. I am in Los Angeles and it is 1 am. Have spoken to Twitter already.” Bedi said she was on a flight and got to know about the hacking after landing. Her account is yet to be restored.

Ayyildiz Tim was reportedly founded in 2002. Its ability to hack high-profile accounts raised concerns about Twitter’s security protocols.