Over 600 govt social media accounts hacked since 2017, govt tells LS
New Delhi(PTI): Over 600 social media accounts of the central government were hacked in the last five years, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Responding to a query on the hacking of government's Twitter handles and e-mail accounts, the minister said since 2017, 641 such accounts have been hacked.
Altogether 175 accounts were hacked in 2017, 114 in 2018, 61 in 2019, 77 in 2020, 186 in 2021 and 28 so far this year, he said in a written reply.
Thakur said the information was made available by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to the Ministry of Electronics And Information Technology (MeitY).
Responding to the query on steps being taken by the government to prevent such intrusions in future, the minister said in order to enhance cyber security, CERT-In was set up. It issues alerts and advisories about latest cyber threats and countermeasures on a regular basis to ensure safe use of digital technologies.
"CERT-In has issued 68 advisories for organizations and users for data security and mitigating fraudulent activities.
"On observing compromise of websites/ e-mail/ Twitter accounts, CERT-In notifies the affected entities along with remedial actions to be taken. CERT-In coordinates incident response measures with affected entities, service providers, sectoral Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) as well as Law Enforcement Agencies," the minister said.
CERT-In is operating an automated cyber threat exchange platform for proactively collecting, analysing and sharing tailored alerts with organisations across sectors for proactive threat mitigation actions by them.
He said security tips have been published for users to secure their desktop, mobile/smart phones and preventing phishing attacks.
"CERT-In has set up the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) to generate necessary situational awareness of existing and potential cyber security threats. Phase-I of NCCC is operational," the minister said.
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Justice Swarana K Sharma starts contempt case against Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia over excise posts
New Delhi (PTI): Delhi High Court judge Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma on Thursday initiated criminal contempt proceedings against AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bhardwaj and others over their "vilifying" social media posts against her in relation to the excise policy case.
Justice Sharma said the former Delhi chief minister "orchestrated a calculated campaign" of vilification against her on social media instead of pursuing his legal remedies and clarified that the CBI's petition against the discharge of all accused persons would now be taken up by another bench.
The judge took exception to several social media posts by the proposed contemnors that attributed "political allegiance" to her and allegedly targeted her by posting a misleading "edited" video of a speech given by her at an educational institution in Varanasi.
"Arvind Kejriwal sought to destroy my reputation instead of availing legal remedies after I refused to recuse and a deliberate attempt to lower the court's authority can't be permitted in guise of free speech," Justice Sharma said.
She clarified that she was not recusing herself but was only transferring the case to another bench as she has initiated the contempt proceedings.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for CBI, thanked Justice Sharma for upholding the institution's dignity.
