Swift alerted her social media followers about the hacks on her Instagram and Twitter accounts
Lizard Squad appears to have struck again, this time hitting two of singer Taylor Swift’s social media accounts. The hackers reportedly had control of her accounts for about 15 minutes and posted a tweet urging Swift’s Twitter followers to follow the account of someone who claimed to be the Lizard Squad’s leader. They also reportedly threatened to release nude photos of the popular singer.
Details on the Twitter hack
Time and the Daily Mail both spotted the hackers’ posts. Swift herself alerted her followers and fans to the hacks through a post on her Tumblr account. Initially she reported that her Twitter account had been hacked, and later she added that her Instagram account had been compromised as well.
The singer has been on vacation in Hawaii. She wrote on Tumblr: “My Twitter account got hacked but don’t worry, Twitter is deleting the hacker tweets and locking my account until they can figure out how this happened and get me new passwords.” Taylor Swift also played off one of her hit songs by posting: “#HACKERS GONNA HACK HACK HACK HACK HACK.”
Twitter user @veriuser claimed responsibility for the hack on Swift’s Twitter account by posting a screenshot showing his access. Another Twitter user, @lizzard, said he would post nude pictures of Swift after someone deposited three bitcoins into an account. Twitter suspended both of those accounts, which are the ones the hackers told Swift’s fans to follow.
Swift gave a hat tip to Hayley Williams of Paramore for alerting her to the hack of her Twitter account.
Instagram hack similar
On the pop star’s Instagram account, the hackers urged her fans to follow user @trash, which could be the same person who users the Twitter handle @veriuser, as the Daily Mail noted that he lists his name as “very.” Unlike the hacker’s Twitter account, his Instagram account was still active as of this writing. Just like on his Twitter account, he posted a screenshot showing that he was controlling Swift’s Twitter account.
The tweets and photo on Instagram have been removed from Swift’s social media accounts.
The hack of Taylor Swift’s social media accounts comes less than a month after ISIS reportedly breached the U.S. Central Command’s social media accounts.
