Indian Politicians Email Hacked

2009-06-23

John Leyden, The Register, reports that Indian politician Mani Shankar Aiyar's hotmail account was broken into in order to send messages claiming he'd lost his wallet and was in urgent need of cash to settle a $3,500 hotel bill in England and return home.

The email was sent to everyone in his address book and stated:

"I am sorry that I didn't inform you about my traveling to England for a Seminar. I need a favour from you as soon as you receive this e-mail because I misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money is and other valuable things were kept, I will like you to assist me with a loan urgently.

I will be needing the sum of $3,500 to sort-out my hotel bills and get myself back home. I will appreciate whatever you can afford to help me with, I will pay you back as soon as I return."

Mani Shankar Aiyar is a member of the Indian National Congress and is the cabinet minister in Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Development of the North Eastern Region in the Manmohan Singh government. When contacted by the Indian Express, Aiyar confirmed that his email account had been hacked into and that he was locked out of his account, stating "Unfortunately, the hacker has changed my password so I cannot access my email account. I am in New York attending a seminar on local self-government at Columbia University. I request all recipients to ignore this mischievous message."

The hackers are believed to have taken advantage of a weak password. A strong password can be created by combining letters, numbers and symbols, by making the password at least 8 characters long, using a variation of capitalization and small letters and by avoiding common words such as; 123, password, your birth date, your login name and any other words that can be found in the dictionary.