14 DAY TRIAL // The official Twitter account of the Anne Arundel County Police Department (@AACOPD) and the one of Anne Arundel County Chief of Police Kevin Davis (@ChiefKevinDavis) have been compromised by cybercriminals.
The hackers have used the two accounts to trick their followers into visiting a malicious website.
In a statement issued following the incident, Anne Arundel County Police Department representatives urged users to refrain from opening links contained in messages received from the two accounts.
“We sincerely apologize for any confusion this may have caused. We are working to correct this problem and ensure that it doesn’t happen again. Let this also serve as a lesson that not even law enforcement agencies are immune to identity theft and hackers,” the department stated on Facebook.
The statement continues “Our goal is to continue to use social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to provide timely, intriguing and specific information. If the Twitter accounts @AACOPD or @ChiefKevinDavis ever send you a message, it will be specific with a name attached.”
It’s uncertain if the links led malware-serving websites, phishing sites, or other scams.
The cybercriminals used the compromised accounts to send out messages such as “Check what this [n-word] posted about you,” “Look at this picture of you” or “How is this possible,” each accompanied by links.
These types of messages have been used over the past weeks to lure Twitter customers to cleverly designed phishing websites.
The Anne Arundel County Police Department urges users to change their passwords frequently and never open emails or direct messages from unknown sources. Hopefully, they too will take this piece of advice in the future.