Metropolitan Police Twitter account 'hacked by pranksters' in late-night attack

The Metropolitan Police was left red-faced after pranksters apparenlty targeted its Twitter account in a late-night hack.

Messages including “what you gonna do phone the police?” and “no comment get my lawyer” appeared on the London force’s social media and news pages on Friday night.

Some of the posts also linked to false press releases expressing anti-police sentiments and calling for drill artist Digga D's release.

The account has more than 1.2 million followers.

One tweet called for the release of drill artist Digga D (PA)

Superintendent Roy Smith warned social media users of the security breach, saying it had been subject to "unauthorised access" and telling followers to "ignore any tweets until we verify that it is back under official control."

We are aware that the @metpoliceuk has been subject to unauthorised access and our media team are working hard to delete the messages and ensure the security of the account. Please ignore any Tweets until we verify that it is back under official control. RT

— Supt Roy Smith (@roysmithpolice)

July 19, 2019

Scotland Yard said in a statement there had been no "hack" of its IT infrastructure and the security issue had only affected its MyNewsDesk account, which it uses to issue news releases.

The pranksters posted a series of tweets on Friday night (PA)

They said: “The Met Police Press Bureau uses an online provider called MyNewsDesk to issue news releases and other content.

“When a story is published via MyNewsDesk, it appears on the Met’s website and Twitter accounts and generates an email to those who’ve subscribed to receive our news updates.

The tweets were posted around 11.30pm on Friday (PA)

“Last night, Friday 19 July, unauthorised messages appeared on the news section of our website as well as on the @metpoliceuk Twitter feed and in emails sent to subscribers.

“While we are still working to establish exactly what happened, we have begun making changes to our access arrangements to MyNewsDesk.

Some tweets identified specific individuals (PA)

“We apologise to our subscribers and followers for the messages they have received.

“At this stage, we are confident the only security issue relates to access to our MyNewsDesk account.

The Met are thought to have resecured their account (PA)

“There has been no ‘hack’ of the Met Police’s own IT infrastructure.

“We are assessing to establish what criminal offences have been committed.”