An Garda Síochána

Summary

Hackers gained unauthorised access to the Irish police's @GardaTraffic and @GardaInfo X accounts, removed Garda branding, and published cryptocurrency promotions. Garda systems and data were reportedly unaffected, and no threat actor was identified.

Motives

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TTPs

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Description

A number of X social media accounts used by An Garda Síochána were compromised in an unauthorised-access incident. The published account of the breach described the hacking as occurring on Thursday, while citing Irish broadcaster RTÉ’s report that the cryptocurrency-promoting posts began on Wednesday night. The affected accounts included @GardaTraffic and @GardaInfo, both of which removed Garda branding before publishing posts promoting a cryptocurrency. Some of the posts carried warnings indicating that they were linked to another profile that had already been suspended. The location displayed for the compromised accounts was also changed to Amsterdam. No cryptocurrency, account, or other detail beyond the promotion itself was identified in the source material.

An Garda Síochána confirmed that the unauthorised access was confined to the X platform. The Garda said its own systems had not been affected and that there had been no loss of, or impact on, any Garda data. A Garda spokesperson issued a warning that people should not interact with content posted through the compromised accounts or with accounts claiming to represent them. The spokesperson said the force was continuing internal enquiries into how the unauthorised access occurred. An Garda Síochána was also working with the X platform to obtain an explanation of the incident and the method by which the accounts had been accessed. In a Thursday update, the Garda said the affected accounts had been reestablished. However, they were to remain inactive over the following days so that the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau could carry out its investigations. The source did not report any operational disruption, data loss, impact to Garda systems, or other consequences beyond the unauthorised use of the two social media accounts.

Sources

Sources available to members: 1 source.