Bhubaneswar: The official Instagram account of the Odisha Higher Education Department was reportedly hacked for a brief period.

According to reports, the hacker uploaded several obscene videos and betting-related clips on the department's social media handle during the breach. The nature of the posts caused confusion among the followers.

The identity of the hacker remains unknown at this time. The concerned authorities have initiated an investigation to trace the source of the cyberattack and restore the integrity of the department’s digital platforms.

The department has decided to file a police complaint in this connection.

"The Instagram account of the Higher Education Department was found to have been hacked for a brief period this morning. Some posts unrelated to the department’s activities were uploaded to the account. Once the matter came to the department’s notice, immediate steps were taken to retrieve the Instagram account. The department successfully recovered the account and removed all posts that were not related to the department. The Higher Education Department is treating the incident seriously and has decided to file an FIR in connection with the matter," the department said in a statement.

In a similar incident, the official website of Ravenshaw University in Cuttack was reportedly hacked, triggering concern among students and faculty members. When accessed, the website redirected users to a suspicious betting platform titled 'BENTO4D', instead of the university’s usual interface.

The issue came to light late last night when users trying to open the website were taken to a foreign language betting site, appearing to be in Indonesian but written in English. The redirection occurred on both desktop and mobile devices. None of the university's information was accessible through the site.