Miscreants hack Supreme Court's official YouTube channel

On Friday, the Supreme Court of India’s official YouTube channel was hacked and was seen promoting XRP, a cryptocurrency developed by Ripple Labs. This hacking incident comes at a time when senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing West Bengal government requested to halt live proceedings of the RG Kar medical college rape and murder case.

The hackers have made previous videos of the SC hearings as private. Replacing the usual content, a live video titled “Brad Garlinghouse: Ripple Responds To The SEC’s $2 Billion Fine! XRP PRICE PREDICTION” was broadcasted.

According to The Verge, these scammers have manipulated the system by taking over channels from well-known YouTubers, thereby leveraging hundreds of thousands of subscribers to propagate fraudulent schemes promising lucrative XRP rewards for initial monetary contributions.

The Supreme Court administration has started an enquiry into the hacking of the channel. Multiple law enforcement agencies are retrieving the channel and have launched a high priority investigation into the matter.

This breach underscores the ongoing challenges and vulnerabilities inherent in maintaining the security of digital platforms, even for high-stature entities like the Supreme Court of India.

This is the first time that the Supreme Court's YouTube channel has been hacked after the top court decided to live-stream proceedings of all constitution bench hearings in 2018.

Recently, the Supreme Court's hearings on the suo muto case on the rape and murder of a Kolkata trainee doctor at RG Kar Hospital were streamed live on YouTube.

In 2020, Ripple sued YouTube for failing to stop hackers from impersonating its CEO Brad Garlinghouse. The US firm runs an exchange network for the cryptocurrency XRP, which is aimed at people who want to send money internationally.