LONDON’S METROPOLITAN POLICE have apologised after the force’s Twitter and email accounts were hacked and sent out a series of bizarre messages last night.
The messages initially read “test” or seemingly random letters, before the force’s websites also began to feature posts using bad language with anti-police sentiment and calling for a jailed rapper to be released.
“Free Digga D,” one message said.
Digga D, whose real name is Rhys Herbert, was jailed along with four others last year after they were caught with baseball bats and machetes on their way to attack rivals.
Besides his jail term, Herbert was given a three-year criminal behaviour order restricting him from making music with violent lyrics.
The Met Police’s Twitter account has 1.22 million followers.
However, Scotland Yard police headquarters said its internal IT infrastructure had not been hacked, and explained the issue was limited to its press office’s online provider, MyNewsDesk, which put news releases online to the public.
“Unauthorised messages appeared on the news section of our website,” it said, as well as on its Twitter feed and emails.
“We apologise to our subscribers and followers for the messages they have received.
“We are confident the only security issue relates to access to our MyNewsDesk account. We have begun making changes to our access arrangements to MyNewsDesk,” it said.
“There has been no ‘hack’ of the Met Police’s own IT infrastructure. We are assessing to establish what criminal offences have been committed.”
With reporting from - © AFP 2019
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say