Bay police's Twitter hacked

Bay of Plenty police haven't branched out into diet and nutrition advice so were surprised when their Twitter account tweeted a link to diet pills.

Bay of Plenty police have active profiles on Twitter and Facebook, which for the past two years have kept the community informed of important police updates and alerts.

Yesterday morning, a tweet from Bay of Plenty police encouraged people about diet pills with a link to another website.

Shortly after realising the account had been hacked, this was posted: "BOPPolice Twitter account compromised. We're not branching out into diet and nutrition. Should all be back on track now."

Bay of Plenty Police prevention manager Inspector Scott Fraser said the police district had taken a lead role in helping drive forward police use of social media nationally. "Any communication tool has its risks but when managed properly, the benefits far outweigh those risks," he said.

"The police, can't solve crime, prevent crime and keep communities safe single-handedly, it is a partnership and social media is a fantastic platform for us to engage directly with the community to seek their help and support their needs in a way that is far-reaching and immediate."

Mr Fraser said although it was still in its infancy for New Zealand Police, social media had already proved invaluable.

"In the Bay of Plenty, we put it to significant use during the Rugby World Cup. Offenders have been identified and located using these mechanisms and we have no doubt it will come into its own if we find ourselves responding to an emergency or disaster," he said.

"We operate all of our accounts under strict policy to ensure they are properly monitored and managed which means that any compromise or misuse from outside can be picked up quickly and rectified. We also operate our accounts in such a way that there can be no compromise to other police systems."

A similar tweet was also posted from Taupo MP Louise Upston's Twitter account, which was also removed shortly after.