I am not sure how many of you know this, but Rahul Gandhi’s
Twitter got hacked on 30th November, 2016 around 9 pm. This hack
opens a complete can of worms and makes us wonder and question a lot of things.
Some claim this was done by Rahul Gandhi’s
team to malign opposition, who are focusing on digital India. Some claim it’s
done by the opposition to malign Rahul’s image. We’ll leave that discussion there
and focus on what the title suggests.
I’m a complete twitter junkie and watched the account
closely. The person/group who hacked the account put out a lot of tweets. Some
tweets mocked the political part he supported, some mocked his family and some
of them mocked Rahul Gandhi himself. What baffled me the most was the way the
situation was handled by agency who handled the account.
The agency figured the account has been compromised and must
have probably changed the password immediately, but within few minutes those derogatory
tweets were up again. This clearly showed lack of knowledge on the agency’s
part. Keeping all these things in mind, I’m sharing few hygiene checks that
could help in ensuring your account isn’t compromised similarly.
Setting up the basics: It’s always good to have some
things handy before setting up an account. The following check list will definitely
help you in securing the account and reducing the chances of it being misused.
- Have a very strong password: Yes, you guessed it right, this is the most critical thing one should keep in mind. It should consists of small letters, capital letters, numbers and special characters. It shouldn’t be associated with your account, name, spouse’s name, etc. This will make it difficult for people to have access to your account.
- Security checks: Ensure the email id you’ve put in doesn’t have the same password. Put in your number. These will ensure more security.
- Credentials: Ensure you don’t give away the credentials to anyone. Don’t write it down and leave the paper randomly. If you have to note it down, make sure you keep it secure.
- Third Party Apps: Do not log in to third party applications using your account until and unless you are 100% sure about its authenticity. Even if it’s trusted, do check their data the app can access. Never allow apps that can see/use/change your password.
Crisis Management: Let’s
assume your account gets misused despite all these precautions. If such a situation
arises, here are the things that’ll ensure the situation is handled properly.
- First things first, ensure you have the notification on for the account you manage. It’ll ensure you’re notified as soon as your account is compromised.
- As soon as you feel your account is compromised, change the password, security measures like email id and telephone number. This will ensure the hacker doesn’t get a chance to hack the account again.
- Once that is done, ensure you revoke access to all devices, apps etc. You can check for this in settings. The reason for this is sometimes the account stay logged in devices for some time, despite change in password.
- Contact Twitter as soon as possible, giving a detailed explanation to the situation.
- Check your email id for any mails received for account login etc.
- Write to cyber-crime as soon as possible giving out as many details as possible.
While these things won’t guarantee 100% security, they’ll
definitely help in some way or the other to ensure the account is safe and your
agency doesn’t get fired ;)
Please feel free to give suggestions in the comment section
and also let me know if I’ve missed out anything.
P. S. I don’t support or like Rahul Gandhi at all, but I’m
really against this. Invading and disrespecting someone’s privacy is as low as
it could get.
