Dubai Police social media accounts back online after hacking

Dubai Police social media accounts are back online after an apparent hacking attack on Sunday night.

The police Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and Pinterest pages were all infiltrated by unknown cyber-attackers, according to The National.

A message posted on the police Twitter feed read “Dubai Police is spying on you, Isn’t it fair that we the people do the same back?”. The message was accompanied by a picture of horsemen wearing Guy Fawkes or ‘Anonymous’ masks.

The Twitter attack was claimed by a hacker with the Twitter handle @TheHorsemenLulz.

The Dubai Police account had been “subject to a cyber attack and the concerned authorities are working on recovering the account”, according to a Dubai Media Office statement quoted by The National. Its Twitter account is now being used again to post official messages from the police.

The @TheHorsemenLulz account has a relatively low profile compared with many other hacking groups.

Other hacking groups such as the pro-Assad Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) have claimed numerous attacks within the Middle East and globally.

The SEA said last week it had changed details on the registration page for the Facebook domain, although does not appear to have hijacked the social-networking site itself. It has previously targeted CNN, Reuters and The Associated Press.