Britney Spears’ Instagram Infected With Malware In The Comments

Britney Spears had her Instagram account hacked by a group using malware.

HACKERS INFECT BRITNEY SPEARS INSTA WITH MALWARE

The security firm Eset discovered that the group controlled the virus, called Turla, by posting comments to the celeb’s Instagram feed. At first the comments looked like spam, but once the coding was transformed, the malware directed followers to other sites.

Turla has been active since 2014, when it was created to hack government workers and diplomats. It is claimed to be run by a hacker group working for Russia. Usually, the virus would target common websites its victims liked to use. One, for example, attempted to get people to install a boobytrapped version for Firefox web browser.

Eset researcher Jean-Ian Boutin believes the Instagram version of Turla is a prototype for an updates virus, as the comments found on the social media site did not contain all the malware key characteristics. Social media, Boutin says, has made “life harder for defenders” or malware. “Firstly, it is difficult to distinguish malicious traffic to social media from legitimate traffic,” he explained to the BBC. “Secondly, it gives the attackers more flexibility when it comes to changing the [Command & Control] address as well as erasing all traces of it.”