Satej Patil’s Twitter account hacked

Kolhapur: The verified Twitter account of Satej Patil, the minister of state for home and information technology, was

hacked

around 11 pm on Tuesday. The hacker(s) changed the name of his handle from @Satejp to @TwitterSupport and direct messages from the account were sent to many people, including senior journalists.

Patil’s Twitter handle stopped showing his profile picture as well as his earlier tweets. “Yes, my Twitter account has been hacked. The cyber cell has been asked to look into it. I have written to Twitter to restore my account as soon as possible. Any malice by the hackers will not be tolerated,” Patil told TOI.

Eminent researcher Dhruv Jaishankar was the first to point out the possible hacking activity. He said it was a clever attempt by the hacker to use an account with a blue verification badge. “It (the message in the DM) links to a Google site that asks for Twitter log-in info and password,” Jaishankar tweeted.

Actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar also tweeted that her Instagram account had been hacked. Amir Shaikh, the state president of NSUI, tweeted stating his Facebook account was hacked.

Patil is one of the few young Congress functionaries who is well-connected with people on social media. He has been on Twitter since 2010 and has over 42,000 followers.