An Garda Síochána asked to explain ‘extremely worrying’ social media breach

Garda social media accounts share posts about cryptocurrency in apparent hack

An Garda Síochána has confirmed “third-party unauthorised access” to two of its official X accounts, prompting a warning to the public not to interact with their content.

The @GardaInfo and @GardaTraffic accounts were taken over in a breach related to cryptocurrency on Wednesday night, with a civil rights group describing the incident as “extremely worrying”.

The accounts, on X, formerly Twitter, removed some branding and began publishing scores of posts about a cryptocurrency.

Some of the posts appeared to target individual users but would have been visible to hundreds of thousands of people following the official garda accounts.

A warning was attached to some posts on one profile because it was linked to another suspended account. Such warnings can be issued for violations involving spam, malicious behaviour and security risks.

Olga Cronin, head of policy at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, said: “Any hack of a State agency or body’s systems or online accounts is extremely worrying for all of us.

“An Garda Síochána is entrusted with extremely sensitive and personal information, and their social media accounts could contain valuable personal information via direct messages for example.

“It’s unclear how these accounts were taken over and the extent of the harm or exposure.” She added: “But secure collection, storage, use and deletion of data – whether it is gathered through social media, tech like body-worn cameras or people walking into a Garda station to report a crime – are essential to An Garda Síochána’s operation and all of our safety.

“An Garda Síochána and X should explain to the public what has happened as soon as is practicable, in order to address public concern.” 

Garda accounts altered after cryptocurrency-related breach 

The location listed on both accounts was changed to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, but the @GardaTraffic account, which has 600,000 followers, continued to identify itself as the Garda account for traffic and road safety updates.

The @GardaInfo account, which has almost 300,000 followers and remains linked from the official Garda website, was unavailable under that username for hours after being changed to appear as a support account for a cryptocurrency wallet.

However, older videos and posts published by An Garda Síochána remained visible on the account.

The @GardaInfo account was later restored to its original username, and the suspicious posts on both accounts were no longer readily visible when the profiles were checked at around 10am.

Both accounts had carried advisories stating that they should not be used to report crimes.

Gardaí say no systems or data were affected 

A garda spokesperson said the breach was limited to X and added: “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 @gardaínfo 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.”

- Press Association