Trump Tower renamed ‘Dump Tower’ in Google Maps

The Google Maps entry for New York’s Trump Tower — the home of President-elect Donald Trump — was altered to read ‘Dump Tower’ for a short time yesterday, in a suspected hack.

By lunch time yesterday the title ‘Dump Tower’ had reverted to its correct name. The exact cause of the change is currently unknown.

The building on 5^th Avenue, the headquarters for Mr Trump’s electoral campaign, has become a tourist hot spot since he announced he would run for president. 

The Secret Service introduced measures to secure the area around the high-rise following Mr Trump's election as President-elect, BuzzFeed reports. Those measures however do not appear to extend to the building’s online presence.

Social media users responded to the virtual defacement by posting screenshots online.

https://twitter.com/evanasmith/status/802662016808841216

Similar Google Maps breaches have made headlines previously. One hack in May 2015 saw searches for “n---a house” using the service direct users to the White House.

Earlier that year Google changed its policy so members of the public could no longer make edits to locations.