Cyber Incident Victim: Vizag City Police
Date:
May 2022
Location:
India
Summary
The official Twitter account of Vizag City police was compromised by unidentified hackers, prompting the department to file a formal complaint with Twitter's US headquarters seeking technical details such as the attacker's IP address. Cybersecurity experts indicated the breach likely resulted from social engineering tactics or exploitation of platform vulnerabilities, noting that such attacks frequently target government institutions through manipulated credential harvesting. This incident aligns with broader trends of cybercriminals increasingly focusing on high-profile official accounts, as evidenced by numerous prior compromises across India's government entities.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 0 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On May 14, 2022, unidentified cybercriminals compromised the official Twitter account of the Vizag City Police Department in Visakhapatnam, India. The breach prompted immediate action from law enforcement, who filed a formal complaint with Twitter’s U.S. headquarters to request technical details such as the hacker’s IP address and other forensic clues. Vizag Cyber Crime Station in-charge Tulasi Das confirmed the incident, noting the unusual circumstance of police becoming victims after typically receiving hacking complaints from the public. The department awaited Twitter’s response to proceed with the investigation. IT experts cited in the report attributed such breaches broadly to compromised security systems and insufficient awareness among staff managing IT operations. Cyber Security specialist Srihari Ruttala, a national gold medallist and World Skills-2022 participant, theorized the attack likely involved social engineering tactics—such as phishing schemes duping users into surrendering credentials—or exploitation of vulnerabilities in Twitter’s platform.
The incident underscored a persistent threat to Indian government institutions, with Union Minister Anurag Thakur disclosing in April 2022 that 631 official Twitter and email accounts had been hacked nationally between 2017 and 2021, plus approximately 30 more in early 2022 alone. High-profile targets included Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s account, illustrating the scale of the risk. While the Vizag hack’s operational impacts—such as altered content or disrupted communications—were not detailed in available reports, the police’s reliance on Twitter’s cooperation highlighted procedural dependencies in incident response. No claims of responsibility or explicit motives were identified. Ruttala emphasized preventive measures like stringent password policies and vigilance against third-party links, though these recommendations were contextual observations rather than direct responses to the Vizag incident. The breach remained under investigation pending Twitter’s forensic data.