Odisha Higher Education Department’s Instagram account hacked

Bhubaneswar: The official Instagram account of the Odisha Higher Education Department was briefly compromised, leading to the posting of inappropriate content, including obscene videos and betting-related clips. The unexpected nature of the posts caused confusion among the account’s followers.

The identity of the hacker remains unknown. Authorities have launched an investigation to trace the source of the breach and safeguard the department’s digital presence. A police complaint is being filed in connection with the incident.

In an official statement, the department said:
“The Instagram account of the Higher Education Department was found to have been hacked for a brief period this morning. Some unrelated and inappropriate content was uploaded. Upon discovery, the department acted swiftly to recover the account and remove all unauthorized posts. An FIR will be lodged as the department takes this matter very seriously.”

In a separate but similar incident, Ravenshaw University’s official website was reportedly hacked. The breach caused the website to redirect users to a suspicious betting platform named ‘BENTO4D’, instead of displaying the university’s content.

The issue was discovered late last night, with users being taken to a foreign-language betting page—written in English but resembling Indonesian—when accessing the site on both desktop and mobile devices. As a result, none of the university’s official information was accessible.

Both incidents have raised concerns over the cybersecurity measures in place for educational institutions in Odisha.