Hackers Post Bizarre And Explicit Messages On Met Police Twitter Account

20 July 2019, 08:46 | Updated: 20 July 2019, 19:10

The Metropolitan Police's website has been targeted by hackers who posted a series of bizarre and explicit tweets from the force's official account.

"Unauthorised messages" were posted on Scotland Yard's website and official Twitter account, and sent to journalists and other email subscribers in an apparent hack.

One post, which has since been deleted, read: "We aim to make London the safest global city; Be the best crime-fighters, by any measure; Earn the trust and confidence of every community; Take pride int he quality of our service; So people love, respect and are proud of London's Met".

Another said: "FREE DIGGA D ON FOENEM GANG [sic]".

In a statement, the force said it uses an online provider called MyNewsDesk to distribute news releases and other content across its website and Twitter accounts - which also sends an automated email to subscribers, including many journalists.

Scotland Yard said in a statement there had been "no hack" of its own IT infrastructure, but is assessing whether criminal offences had been committed.

"Last night 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.

"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."