BHUBANESWAR — In a major cybersecurity breach, the official X (formerly Twitter) account of the Twin City Commissionerate Police (Bhubaneswar-Cuttack) was hacked on Monday. The compromised handle was subsequently used by unidentified bad actors to broadcast fraudulent cryptocurrency advertisements.The security failure has raised serious administrative concerns, as the law enforcement agency’s primary digital communication line remained under unauthorized control for over 16 to 19 hours before effective intervention occurred.
Festival Traffic Updates Disrupted
The cyberattack took place during the peak of the Dussehra festive season, a period when local citizens rely heavily on the official handle (@cpbbsrctc) for real-time traffic diversions, safety advisories, and emergency updates. Instead of vital civic information, visitors to the profile were met with unauthorized promotional posts pushing a “XAMAN Airdrop” linked to the XRP cryptocurrency.The phishing posts directed unsuspecting followers to link their digital wallets to a malicious external site to claim token allocations.
Investigation and Recovery Measures
Senior officials, including Commissioner of Police Dr. S. Dev Datta Singh, confirmed that tech teams treated the incident as a high-priority cybersecurity violation
Account Suspension: To insulate the public from further financial fraud, the platform temporarily locked and suspended the compromised handle, rendering it inaccessible to the hackers
Formal Appeal to X Corp: The Commissionerate Police dispatched an official letter to X platform administrators demanding an expedited recovery process and full restoration of administrative rights
System Review Underway: Digital forensics and cyber cell experts are actively auditing the breach vector to identify how standard two-factor authentication or credential safeguards were bypassed.
While the exact identity of the hackers remains unknown, police authorities maintain that rigorous security protocols are being established to safeguard government social media infrastructure from future exploitation.
