Govt of India to come up with data protection law soon, issues notice to Twitter after recent hacking targeting users like Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates

India’s cybersecurity nodal agency CERT-In has issued a notice to Twitter asking the micro-blogging platform for full details of a recent global hacking incident targeting high-profile users, as it sought information on the number of Indian users affected, as well as impact on data.

Quoting sources PTI reported that CERT-In has also asked Twitter for information on number of users from India who have visited the malicious tweets and links, and whether the affected users have been informed by the platform about unauthorised access to their Twitter accounts.

Cyber attackers had hacked into the Twitter accounts of global high profile users – including former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden as well as a many corporate leaders including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk – on Wednesday, in a purported Bitcoin scam.

Meanwhile, Union Law and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that India will not tolerate Data Imperialism. He asserted that Citizens’ Data belongs to the community and the country. The Minister exhorted that the government will never compromise on the sovereignty of the data.

Ravi Shankar Prasad informed that the Centre will soon bring in a data protection law in the country and a select committee of Parliament is already examining the matter.

Speaking at a virtual lecture organized in the memory of his father, late Thakur Prasad, the Minister said that Coronavirus pandemic has brought in changes in the work culture.

He informed that since the virtual hearings have started in Indian courts , High courts have so far handled nearly one lakh 75 thousand cases. Subordinate courts have heard over 7 lakh 34 thousand cases and Supreme Court has handled 7 thousand 800 of such cases. The minister also cautioned everyone regarding data privacy while lauding the digital delivery of services, which he said is empowering the country. (With inputs from AIR)