On the evening of 19th July 2019, the there was a social media hack on the Twitter account belonging to the Metropolitan Police, who are responsible for policing London.

For a period of time, hackers had full control of the Met’s social media platforms. The problem first became apparent when some rather unusual tweets were published without the Metropolitan Police’s awareness.

It quickly became very embarrassing for Scotland Yard, with even Donald Trump declaring: “With the incompetent Mayor of London, you will never have safe streets!”

How?

It is believed that the social media hack was carried out by a gang involved with the currently jailed 17-year-old rapper, Digga D, with one of the tweets referencing the rapper’s name.

However, this was quite serious.

The hackers didn’t just get access to the Met’s Twitter account but also their website and emails. Emails were sent out of their press and PR email address – again, without knowledge or oversight of anybody within the police force.

If the hackers’ aim was to make a statement, they certainly did.

Hacking the Metropolitan Police’s social media accounts and their website means that even our biggest police force isn’t cyber secure enough.

One of the largest authoritative organisations who are meant to set an example, has been undone.

What can be done?

This Social media hack could have been easily avoided. Putting cyber security measures in place can stop organisations and businesses from suffering embarrassing experiences like this.

Stronger passwords are incredibly necessary but often overlooked. You can create a password here using our password generator tool and find out how long it would take to crack!

The Met Police’s network security and email security were clearly not strong enough to cope with the hack.

If the Metropolitan Police had been properly prepared and had these security measures in place they would have avoided the situation. As a result, and with no action on their cyber security they suffered an embarrassing episode.If one of the biggest police forces in the country can be hacked, then so can you.

To ensure that your cyber security is up to scratch, complete our Cyber Security Rating Report to generate your score. For more information call Neuways on 01283 753 333 or email us at hello@neuways.com