Not Just Rain—Delhi Weather Office Battles a Social Media Hack

The Delhi weather office had an unexpected problem this weekend when its official X (formerly Twitter) account was hacked. People noticed strange and inappropriate posts coming from the account on Saturday, which quickly got everyone’s attention—including the authorities.

Here’s what happened:

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) confirmed that its Regional Weather Forecasting Centre’s X account was compromised. The odd posts were up for a short time before the IMD took action.

News agency PTI noticed the issue and alerted the IMD, who then deleted the posts and worked to secure the account.

The IMD put out a statement saying they’d removed the posts and started an investigation to figure out how the hack happened. They’re also looking at ways to prevent this from happening again.

This isn’t the first time the IMD has had trouble with hackers. Their main X account was hacked back in April 2022, which led to a bunch of spam posts before things were fixed.

After that earlier incident, the IMD put in stronger security measures. Still, this latest breach shows that even with precautions, official accounts can be vulnerable.

The IMD reassured everyone that weather updates and official information weren’t affected by the hack. They’re promising even tighter security going forward.

It’s a reminder that even government agencies have to stay on their toes when it comes to online security.

Source: Deccan Herald, Economic Times, Tribune India, Devdiscourse, Live India