Supreme Court's Official YouTube Channel Hacked, Videos Promoting Cryptocurrency Showcased

The official YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India was hacked on Friday, showcasing videos of cryptocurrency promotions developed by US-based Ripple Labs.

A blank video with the title "Brad Garlinghouse: Ripple Responds To The SEC's $2 Billion Fine! XRP PRICE PREDICTION" was running live on the hacked channel.

At around 2:50 pm, upon opening the top court's YouTube channel account page, it said, "This page isn't available. Sorry about that."

In this regard, the apex court issued a notice saying, "This is to inform all concerned that the YouTube channel of Supreme Court of India has been taken down." It added that the services will be resumed shortly.

The platform has been used by the Supreme Court to stream live hearings of the cases listed before it and matters that concern public interest.

Following a milestone verdict on the matter in 2018, the recent full court meeting headed by the then CJI UU Lalit unanimously decided to live stream proceedings of all constitution bench hearings.

Just yesterday, Hyderabad Metro's X account was hacked with the message, "THIS HACKED ACCOUNT! INTRODUCING $HACKED ON SOLANA on each account we hack we publish the token address so we pump it and make profits together."

According to Telangana Today, the cyberattack was promoting a cryptocurrency token named $HACKED on Solana blockchain. Reportedly, several other X accounts were also hacked. It was not clear how the hackers managed to breach through to these accounts, but it reports suggested that this was done through a "compromised API key or third party apps linked to the accounts".

The L&T Hyderabad Metro Rail had posted from its (@ltmhyd) account at around 8:30 am, saying, "Our official Twitter/X account (@ltmhyd) has been hacked. Please avoid clicking any links or engaging with posts until further notice. We're working on it and will update you soon."

The account 12 hours later posted that the team had successfully regained access to their X account "following an unauthorised breach".

Meanwhile, Indian Hockey team's X account was hacked on Wednesday, just a day after they won their fifth Asian Champions Trophy following a nail-biting final against China.

The hacked message on the @TheHockeyIndia account read, "THIS IS HACKED ACCOUNT! INTRODUCING $HACKED ON SOLANA. On each account we hack we publish the token address so we pump it and make profits together." The post also had a link attached to it.

While speaking at an event in the outskirts of Hyderabad, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai on Friday said that cybercrime has emerged as a major threat.

Rai urged IPS officer trainees to lead the endeavour to address the digital challenges with technical expertise.

He quoted Union Home Minister Amit Shah as saying that technology would have an important role in managing internal security in the future.