Hackers don’t spare even the PM!

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A good number of PM Narendra Modi’s 70 million Twitter followers saw a most surprising tweet from his handle on Sunday morning - “India has offi cially accepted bitcoin as legal tender. The government has offi cially bought 500 BTC and would be distributing them to all residents of the country.” There was also a link attached to a possible scam. If Bitcoin investors got their hopes up, their happiness was short-lived, for the Prime Minister’s offi ce responded quickly, saying his Twitter handle had been “very briefl y compromised.”The tweet was deleted but not before many users took screenshots, which have been doing the rounds on social media all through the day. It is unclear how apparent hackers gained access to Mr Modi’s personal profi le or for how long it was compromised. Twitter responded with a statement saying the account “was not compromised due to any breach of Twitter’s systems.”

And just in case you’re still wondering, no, India does not recognize Bitcoin as legal tender, nor does the government plan to distribute it.