Garda social media accounts breached by crypto-hackers
Social media accounts used by An Garda Síochána appear to have been taken over in a breach related to cryptocurrency.
An Garda Síochána confirmed third-party unauthorised access with 2 Official Garda Social Media X accounts @gardainfo and @gardatraffic.
This unauthorised access has occurred on the X platform only.
An Garda Síochána is satisfied that there is no unauthorised access with any Garda systems and that there is no loss or impact on any Garda data.
An Garda Síochána is warning members of the public not to interact with any content posted on the @gardatraffic or @gardainfo X accounts, or accounts purporting to be these accounts.
An Garda Síochána continues to carry out our internal enquiries and work with the X platform to understand how this unauthorised access has occurred.
A warning has been attached to some posts from the profiles due to being linked with another suspended account, which can happen for violations of rules around spam, malicious behaviour and security risks.
The @GardaTraffic and @GardaInfo accounts on X removed some branding and started publishing scores of posts about a cryptocurrency last night.
The location on both accounts has been changed to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, but the @GardaTraffic account, which has 600,000 followers, still claims it is the garda account for traffic and road safety updates.
The @GardaInfo account, which has almost 300,000 followers and is still linked from the official garda website, is no longer available under that username as it has been changed to appear as a support account for a cryptocurrency wallet.
However, old videos and posts made by An Garda Síochána are still visible on the account.
Gardaí issed a statement confirming that a third-party gained unauthorised access with two official garda Social Media X accounts @gardainfo and @gardatraffic.
In the statement gardaí said that this unauthorised access has occurred on the X platform only.
"An Garda Síochána is satisfied that there is no unauthorised access with any garda systems and that there is no loss or impact on any garda data.
"An Garda Síochána is warning members of the public not to interact with any content posted on the @gardatraffic or @gardainfo X accounts, or accounts purporting to be these accounts.
"An Garda Síochána continues to carry out our internal enquiries and work with the X platform to understand how this unauthorised access has occurred", the statement said.