Twitter restores Air India's hacked official Twitter handle
What's the story
National carrier Air India's official Twitter account was hacked late last night for many hours before being restored, the airline said today. Messages in the Turkish language were posted on the official Twitter handle @airindiain to mislead passengers, an Air India spokesperson said, adding all the malicious contents posted on the handle have been removed. Air India has over 1,46,000 followers on Twitter.
Details
Air India took up the matter with the Twitter authorities
"Air India immediately swung into action and took up the matter with the Twitter authorities. All malicious content was removed on a war-footing. It is hoped that normalcy would be restored soon, " the spokesperson said in a statement. "Passengers are requested to ignore any misleading and mischievous communication on our operations," the spokesperson added. All Air India flights are operating as per schedule.
The hacking
Cover image was changed to Turkish Airlines plane picture
One of the posts by the hackers read, "Last minute important announcement. All our flights have been canceled. From now on, we will fly with Turkish Airlines." According to a report by The Quint, the account's cover image was also changed to a photo of a Turkish Airlines plane, and for some time the handle name was also changed from @airindiain to @airindiaTR.