Gardaí issue urgent warning to public after official accounts hacked in major security breach
Gardaí confirmed on Thursday morning that their official X accounts had been hacked
An Garda Síochána has issued a warning to the public after two of its official social media accounts were hacked, with unauthorised posts promoting cryptocurrency appearing on the profiles.
Gardaí confirmed on Thursday morning that its official @GardaInfo and @GardaTraffic accounts on X, formerly Twitter, had been accessed by an unauthorised third party.
The security breach emerged on Wednesday night when the accounts, which have hundreds of thousands of followers between them, began publishing suspicious cryptocurrency-related content.
The @GardaTraffic account, which is normally used to share road safety information and traffic updates, has approximately 600,000 followers.
Meanwhile, the main @GardaInfo account, followed by almost 300,000 people, was reportedly renamed @XummHelpx, appearing to impersonate a cryptocurrency wallet support service.
The locations displayed on the affected accounts were also changed to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Some posts promoted cryptocurrency offers and encouraged users to claim allocations of digital currency, raising concerns that members of the public could be exposed to fraudulent activity.
Gardaí issue warning to public
In a statement issued on Thursday, Gardaí stressed that there was no evidence of Garda internal systems being compromised and that no Garda data had been lost or affected.
They said,
“An Garda Síochána can confirm 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.”
Members of the public are advised to exercise caution when encountering suspicious cryptocurrency promotions or unexpected links appearing to originate from official accounts.