Just over two months ago I explained on Twitter why I was next Britney Spears. In a nutshell, I pursue Britney on Twitter not because I’m involved in her music or her complex private life, but since it’s the best way of getting a heads-up on when her account next gets hacked.
Ironically enough, I wasn’t on Twitter nowadays as I was downward in London language at the “Information Security in the Public Sector” meeting about social networking threats.
So, where’s the irony? Well, while I was chatting about some of Britney’s past plight on Twitter her account was being hacked – again!
This occasion the bad guys replace her wallpaper and profile picture with emblems signifying she was part of some conspiratorial masonic secret world government (as far as I know, this isn’t true about Britney, although I have from time to time supposed she might be a shape-shifting lizard):
Some post were also posted to her legions of followers (over 3.7 million at the last count);
I expect that the new world order will arrive as soon as possible! -Britney
And
I give myself to Lucifer every day for it to arrive as quickly as possible. Glory to Satan!
I deduce we should be thankful that these hacks appear to have been mindless damage rather than aggravated by more malicious intentions. Imagine, for example, if the hacker had posted a message saying “Free tickets to a secret concert” which had taken some of Britney Spears’s millions of ardent fans to a malicious website? It’s not clear at this stage how Britney’s Twitter account was compromised – but probably the most likely bet is that a simple easy-to-crack password was being used or that one of Britney’s team fell for a phishing attack.
The Twitter account of Britney Spears does come into view to have now been brought back to order, and regret was posted to her followers:
However the attack happened it’s a opportune reminder to all of us (whether responsible for Twitter accounts with a small or huge following) to take greater care with our online security.