Pro-Pakistan Turkish cyber group hacks Twitter accounts of several politicians

Twitter accounts of Kiran Bedi, Anupam Kher, Ram Madhav and Swapan Dasgupta were hacked by Turkey-based cyber group.

Turkey-based cyber group Ayyildiz Tim

New Delhi: Twitter accounts of Puducherry Governor Kiran Bedi, actor Anupam Kher, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav and Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta were hacked by 'pro-Pakistan' Turkey-based cyber group Ayyildiz Tim.

"My Twitter account has been hacked," Bedi told PTI in a message.

Her account carried a series of tweets in Turkish and English and also featured the emoji of the Turkish flag. One of the tweets read, "we are protesting the continuous closure of our social media accounts. As long as you do not remove the embargo that you apply to us, all social media users around the world are at risk."

Another tweet which contained bits of a post in Turkish said, "Your account has been hacked by the Turkish cyber army Ayyildiz Tim. Your DM correspondence and important data have been captured. Turkiye and Pakistan."

Actor Kher, who is currently in Los Angeles, said he got to know about the breach from his friends in India.

"My Twitter account was hacked. Got few calls from friends in India about it. I am in LA," Kher told PTI over a text message. "Got a DM yesterday from Mr Swapan Dasgupta's account about a link. A first from him. So opened it. Have spoken to Twitter," he added.

Dasgupta's account was also compromised. A note stated - "Caution. This account is temporarily restricted. You're seeing this warning because there has been some unusual activity from this account. Do you still want to view it?"

Ram Madhav's account also seemed to be hacked. Three tweets on his timeline carried messages in Turkish along with the tweet displaying the Turkish flag.

Our teams are working to resolve an issue affecting a small number of Indian users. We will notify affected account holders directly. Reminder: do not click on links in DMs coming from unknown accounts. For security advice & best practice, read here: https://t.co/Wb8g07EjfD

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) February 6, 2018

While it is not yet known exactly how and when the accounts were hacked, both Madhav's and Kher's pages had re-tweeted posts. The posts indicated that the accounts were targeted by 'pro-Pakistan' Turkish cyber army 'Ayyildiz tim'.

Messages with the words 'love Pakistan' were tweeted from some of the hacked accounts.

(With PTI inputs)