Cyberabad traffic police’s X handle hacked, turned into fake crypto profile; restored

Hyderabad: The X handle of Cyberabad traffic police fell victim to cybercrime, was hacked and turned into a fake profile of a US businessman.

The X account (formerly known as the Twitter account) has over 2 lakh followers and has been active with posts about traffic updates and advisories.

Since December 18, the Cyberabad traffic police account was hacked and taken over by hackers and changed its user ID to @bgarlignhouse, a fake ID of @bgarlinghouse, the profile of Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, an American crypto-currency cum Software company.

While concerned citizens raised the issue on X, Cyberabad police joint commissioner, Joel Davis, told Siasat.com, that the police were in continuous talks with X, soon after which the official account was back into operations.

With cyberattacks becoming even more serious threats in today’s cyberspace, incidents like this reflect that even the police and the state are not safe from cyber security threats.

The X handle of Delhi police also was hacked this month, on December 10 and the profile picture, account name and bio were reportedly changed. The security breach left citizens confused, however, it was retrieved within a day.

Earlier in January 2024, the then-Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan’s official X handle was also hacked. Investigations later revealed that the security breach was perpetrated using a Mumbai boutique’s WiFi connection.