Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi, Dec. 1. (Shahbaz Khan\/PTI)<\/p>\n
A day after the hacking of Rahul Gandhi\u2019s Twitter account, the official Twitter account of Indian National Congress was also hacked, Dec. 1, with the party saying some messages laden with expletives and profanities were posted online. <\/b>\u2013 @Siliconeer #Siliconeer #India #Twitter #RahulGandhi\u00a0#INC #CongressPartyofIndia @INCIndia #OfficeOfRG<\/p>\n
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The hacking of the Congress Vice President\u2019s Twitter account led to twin probes by the Delhi Police and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) following a complaint by the party.<\/p>\n
IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the matter is being taken very \u201cseriously\u201d and prompt action has been taken. \u201cWe are seeking the details of all those who logged in that twitter account in the last one week to probe it further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gandhi\u2019s Twitter account was hacked, Nov. 30, and some obscene remarks were put out online for around an hour. On Dec. 1, his email was also hacked, the party claimed.<\/p>\n
Blaming \u201cfascist\u201d forces for the hacking, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said it reflects the extremities of an intolerant culture that resorts to abuse when cornered and claimed the party has fought such \u201chatred and animosity\u201d with Gandhian compassion and tolerance.<\/p>\n
He also said this exposes weaknesses in cyber security networks in India.<\/p>\n
The Congress filed a complaint with the Cyber cell of Delhi Police on the hacking of the two twitter accounts, the party website and the email accounts of Congress and Rahul Gandhi. The complaint was filed by Surjewala, demanding registration of a criminal case and strict action against those behind the hacking.<\/p>\n
The Delhi police, on its part, initiated a probe into the incident and has written to the management of the social media site seeking necessary details. A case has been registered in the Economic Offences wing under Section 66 of IT Act.<\/p>\n
Surjewala confirmed that first @OfficeOfRG and then @INCIndia twitter accounts were hacked by \u201clumpen fascists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surjewala said he has filed a complaint on behalf of Congress to Delhi police and said the onus is on Modi government to ensure digital security and punish the guilty.<\/p>\n
\u201cFree speech and right to disagree in India is under attack by licensed trolls. Such despotic and vulgar attempts reflect the extremities of an intolerant culture that resorts to abuse when cornered and left answerless,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndian National Congress has fought such hatred and animosity with Gandhian compassion and tolerance. \u2018Sabko sanmati de bhagwaan\u2019 (May God give better sense to all),\u201d Surjewala said on Twitter.<\/p>\n
He also tweeted, \u201cCyber attacks on @INCIndia and @OfficeOfRG exposes the vulnerability of cyber security and Digital platforms in India. An eye opener for Modiji!.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier, Gandhi tweeted, \u201cTo every one of you haters out there. I love all of you. You\u2019re beautiful. Your hatred just doesn\u2019t let you see it yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Congress later tweeted, \u201cHello everyone! We are back. The tweets in the morning lacked wit, evidently. Anyway, Mr. Modi, back to people\u2019s questions, care to answer?.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Electronics and IT has started probe into hacking of Gandhi\u2019s official Twitter account.<\/p>\n
Sources at Twitter said there was no security breach at their end, but the accounts may have been compromised through breach of e-mail.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far twitter account of Rahul Gandhi is concerned, when it came to my notice, I took it very seriously. Twitter representative of India was contacted and all offending tweets were removed,\u201d Prasad said.<\/p>\n
Allaying fears about the cyber security system, Prasad said, \u201cI want to assure the country that our cyber security mechanism is fine. We are taking all steps to further reinforce it. When this kind of thing take place we take prompt measures.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also came to know that Congress has lodged an FIR in the case. Whatever is possible on our part, we will cooperate with Delhi Police IT cell for this,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said nobody from the government or BJP is involved in the hacking incident.<\/p>\n
Congress MP Deepender Hooda said the hacking incident only exposes the perils of the digital world and the cyber security that exists in India.<\/p>\n
Taking a potshot at the Modi government\u2019s Digital India move, he said, \u201cIt also exposes the hollowness of the Digital India. There is a question mark on the whole push going towards digital as your server is not safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surjewala, in his complaint, Dec. 1, told the police about the hacking of the verified twitter account of Indian National Congress i.e. @INCIndia (http:\/\/twitter.com\/IncIndia<\/a>) as also the website i.e. www.inc.in<\/a> and consequent email account of Indian National Congress i.e. outreach@inc.in<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would like to bring to your attention that approximately between 9.30 AM and 10.00 AM in the morning of Dec. 01, 2016; twitter account, website and email account mentioned aforesaid were hacked, compromised, illegally accessed, interfered with and manipulated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIlk of BJP MP\u2019s & central committee members should stop rumor mongering to protect hackers & divert attention. Pl worry about Digital safety,\u201d he tweeted.<\/p>\n Congress had raised questions on the digital safety of all Indians and said it reflects disturbing insecurities of the prevalent \u201cfascist culture\u201d in the country.<\/p>\n Gandhi\u2019s account was hacked Nov. 29 around 8:45 PM and some messages with profanities were put out, but these were deleted soon thereafter.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch lowly tactics will neither drown the sane voice of reason nor deter Rahul Gandhi from raising people\u2019s issues,\u201d Surjewala had said.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch unscrupulous, unethical and roguish conduct of venal trolls to hack Rahul Gandhi\u2019s Twitter handle reflects disturbing insecurities of prevalent fascist culture.\u201d<\/p>\n Congress President Sonia Gandhi\u2019s political secretary Ahmed Patel also tweeted, \u201cThe way @OfficeOfRG a\/c got hacked, as cybercrime and Twitter watched helpless raises serious Q\u2019s on digital safety, Digital India future.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThose forcing country to adopt online payment overnight, have they taken steps to ensure a\/c of ordinary ppl will be immune from hacking?,\u201d he also said.<\/p>\n Earlier a MEITY official said in response to a PTI query, \u201cWe are probing the incident (hacking of Gandhi\u2019s account).\u201d<\/p>\n MEITY\u2019s cyber security arm Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) will investigate the matter.<\/p>\n CERT-In has authority to collect information stored or communication carried out by any computer in the country for the purpose of cyber security.<\/p>\n Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said some things are \u201cinevitable\u201d in the cyber world.<\/p>\n \u201cHacking happens. It has happened to me and so to others.<\/p>\n At the same time, Twitter is a relatively secure platform and this suggests that there were some significant forces behind it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Another Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury said it is high time that the government gets its act together and questioned whether there has been an intelligence failure.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have a PM who is sitting and saying I am not safe, there is a risk to my life. It\u2019s not that some tiny hacker has gotten into it. You need high technology. Is there an intelligence failure in the country that they (govt) do not who did this. I suggest that this government should get its act together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi, Dec. 1. (Shahbaz Khan\/PTI) A day after the hacking of Rahul Gandhi\u2019s Twitter account, the official Twitter account of Indian National Congress was also hacked, Dec. 1, with the party saying some messages laden with expletives and profanities were posted online. \u2013 @Siliconeer #Siliconeer #India #Twitter #RahulGandhi\u00a0#INC…<\/p>\n