Russian hackers are lurking in the comments of Britney Spears’ Instagram
Nothing’s safe from Russian hackers these days—not democratic elections, nor even our celebrities’ social media accounts. Those carefully curated feeds draw a staggering number of eyes on Instagram, which is on track to hit a billion users this year, so naturally they’re now under threat from miscreants and malware. Just recently, Britney Spears’ Instagram account was infiltrated by hackers via a spam-like comment. Engadget picked up a report from Slovakian security firm ESET, which found a vaguely creepy sentence fragment posted on a photo of Spears in a mesh onesie. That seeming gibberish was later revealed to be some kind of beacon for malware.
Engadget notes that the comment, which was “actually a web address that required a fairly complicated, multi-step process to decipher,” has already been deleted from Spears’ account. The singer’s reps issued a statement, indicating that they’re “aware of this activity and have taken action against the responsible account,” lest the whole thing prove to be toxic. But even if you’re not a Grammy winner, look out for weird comments or seemingly meaningless hashtags in your own feeds.