An Garda Síochána's social media accounts are promoting cryptocurrencies after being hacked

LAST UPDATE | 15 Oct

AN GARDA SÍOCHÁNA’S main accounts on the social media platform X were hacked and are promoting cryptocurrencies in a significant security breach.

The @gardainfo and @gardatraffic accounts on X (formerly Twitter) have both been affected.

The @gardainfo account is the main X account used by An Garda Síochána and has hundreds of thousands of followers. The @gardatraffic account is used for road safety updates and has over 600,000 followers. 

The feeds of both accounts are full of hundreds of posts advertising a cryptocurrency wallet application. 

Users on X began reporting that the @gardainfo account appeared to have been hacked shortly after 11pm on Wednesday night. 

The handle on that account has since changed to @XummHelpx. 

The @gardatraffic account still has its original handle at the time of reporting. 

One of many identical posts on the @gardatraffic X account The Journal

Each one of the posts tags a different X user and invites them to claim an “allocation” of XRP, a type of cryptocurrency coin. 

Fraudulent cryptocurrency promotions are often used by scammers. 

Both accounts now purport to be located in the Netherlands. 

In a statement issued this morning, gardaí confirmed “third-party unauthorised access” with the two X accounts. The unauthorised access occurred only on the X platform, gardaí said.

A spokesperson said the organisation is satisfied that there is no unauthorised access with any garda systems, and no loss or impact on any garda data.

The spokesperson warned members of the public not to interact with the two accounts or any content posted on them.

“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 spokesperson concluded.