FIR lodged after UGC’s Twitter handle hacked; 24,000 spam tweets deleted

New Delhi: The Special Cell of Delhi Police has registered an First Information Report (FIR) in connection with hacking of the University Grants Commission’s official Twitter handle. The UGC’s Twitter handle was hacked on April 10 at approximately 1.30 a.m. in the night. UGC is a statutory body set up by the Department of Higher […]

New Delhi: The Special Cell of Delhi Police has registered an First Information Report (FIR) in connection with hacking of the University Grants Commission’s official Twitter handle.

The UGC’s Twitter handle was hacked on April 10 at approximately 1.30 a.m. in the night.

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UGC is a statutory body set up by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India for the coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of teaching, examination and research in university education.

A complaint was also lodged with the micro-blogging website Twitter, which immediately provided regained access to the UGC handle. The hackers had posted around 24,000 spam tweets, which Twitter said have to be deleted manually. Notably, the official Twitter account of UGC has 2,98,704 followers.

Accordingly, based on the complaint of UGC’s SWAYAM project IT consultant Abhishek Kumar Anand, the police registered an FIR under section 66, 66C of the IT Act at the Special Cell police station.

A Delhi Police official said that the matter has been brought into the notice of senior officers. “Probe is underway,” the official added.