Two official Twitter accounts operated by Ireland's Garda Síochána were hijacked this week and used to post messages promoting a cryptocurrency scam. The accounts — @GardaInfo and @GardaTraffic, which together have hundreds of thousands of followers — claimed people were eligible for a free cryptocurrency airdrop. In reality, users who followed the link could be tricked into handing over the keys to their cryptocurrency wallet.
The breach raises a broader concern: if an attacker could post from the accounts, they may also have accessed direct messages containing sensitive information from the public. A police spokesperson told the Belfast Telegraph that An Garda Síochána is satisfied there was no unauthorised access to Garda systems and no loss or impact on Garda data. The force says it is carrying out an internal investigation and working with the X platform to understand how the access occurred.
Attackers have several routes into social media accounts, including phishing, password-stealing malware, and reused credentials. The episode is not unprecedented: police accounts in the UK, Dubai, and Philadelphia have also been hijacked in recent years. Cybersecurity advice remains to use multi-factor authentication, unique strong passwords, and to review which third-party apps have access to accounts.