Residents of Meghalaya have been receiving some rather strange communications from the government since yesterday, it has been widely reported.
Recently, the authorities have turned to simple SMS messages to provide information and advice to the general public on ways and means of tackling the Covid-19 pandemic.
These messages (at least to this reporter) have come in English and Khasi. Although no attribution is explicitly given, the messages direct the recipient to a number of official websites, such as that of the National Health Mission in Meghalaya and the COWIN app, as well as directing people to use the helpline 14410.
Last night, instead of English or Khasi, however, this reporter was sent a message in an East Asian script. A search online shows that most of these characters were in Chinese, with the translation of one line reading, “The pine and orange lion happily dispels the sadness of the door and overlooks the two wives of the orange.” Another equally unintelligible SMS arrived on his phone this afternoon.
Sonmin Haokip, who follows Highland Post on Facebook, also received the mysterious messages and shared them with this newspaper. He suggested that the government computer systems have been hacked, though this was not confirmed by official sources to HP.
