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The official YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India was hacked for several hours on September 20, 2024, in a shocking breach of cybersecurity. The channel displayed videos promoting XRP, a cryptocurrency developed by the United States-based company Ripple Labs, before it was disabled, leaving visitors with a 404 error message.
The hackers exploited the channel to showcase a blank video titled Brad Garlinghouse: Ripple Responds To The SEC's $2 Billion Fine! XRP PRICE PREDICTION. Garlinghouse is the chief executive of Ripple Labs, which is currently embroiled in legal disputes with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Hackers appeared to have made previous videos of Supreme Court hearings private as well. At around 3 pm, when accessing the YouTube channel of the apex court, the message displayed was: “This page isn't available. Sorry about that. Try searching for something else.”
“This is to inform all concerned that the YouTube channel of Supreme Court of India has been taken down. The services on YouTube channel of Supreme Court of India will be resumed shortly,” a notice on the website of the SC declared.
The Supreme Court's YouTube channel began live-streaming hearings of cases involving public interest in 2018. The channel broadcast proceedings before Constitution benches and other matters of public interest.
The decision to live stream Constitution Bench hearings was a broader policy change implemented in 2018 under then-Chief Justice UU Lalit. The Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah case was one of the first cases to be live streamed under this new policy.
The cyberattack follows another recent incident involving Hyderabad Metro’s X (formerly Twitter) account. The handle @ltmhyd was hacked on September 18, 2024 and the attack promoted a cryptocurrency token named $HACKED on the Solana blockchain. It is unclear how the hackers breached the accounts, but reports suggest it may have involved a “compromised API key or third-party apps linked to the accounts,” reported magazine Outlook.
Hyderabad Metro Rail later confirmed it had successfully regained access to its account.
The Indian Hockey team’s X account was also hacked just a day after their victory in the Asian Champions Trophy final against China. The hacked message on the @TheHockeyIndia account read, "THIS IS A HACKED ACCOUNT! INTRODUCING $HACKED ON SOLANA. For each account we hack, we publish the token address to pump it and make profits together,” along with a link, stated the Outlook report.