Celebrity Twitter Hacks: How Stars Like Justin Bieber Get Hacked

Britney Spears, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga, alongside news organisations such as Fox News and gaming franchise FIFA have all suffered at the hands of hackers.

However, despite it seeming obvious when a celebrity has fallen victim (such as when Britney Spears professed to “worship Satan”) many people retweet them - which can infect more victims.

Many Twitter hacks, such as those directed at Miss Spears serve simply to embarrass, but others can have more menacing goals.

The hack of Justin Bieber’s account earlier this year showed off how such attacks can be effective in reaching huge numbers of Twitter users to promote the hackers’ own apps, fraudulent diets, or worse gain access to users’ personal profiles.

Most Twitter hacks happen either when a PC is infected by malicious software, giving attackers access to passwords, or when a Twitter app is hacked, allowing hackers to post as someone else. Britney Spears has been hacked several times, and some of those attacks were thought to be via third-party apps which use Twitter log-ins.

Apps or websites which ask for a Twitter log-in instead of an email and password can’t always be trusted. Tweets sent from infected accounts also often try to lure victims into downloading more apps, and harvesting more details.

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Justin Bieber And The First Rule of Staying Safe

The tweets included an Indonesian word (which many followers wouldn't have understood), but nonetheless almost instantly his legion of die-hard fans were retweeting and favouriting the message.

In this instance, the link was designed to promote an app and encouraged users to download it. This gifted the hackers a huge platform to promote their product. In many instances, these apps can seek to gather information from followers and in turn give hackers access to their accounts. The same goes for any link from an account which you suspect may have been hacked.

The first rule of staying safe on Twitter is to avoid downloading any app, or clicking any link, from an account you suspect may have been hacked. Even if it is your favourite celebrity on the planet, odds are that if someone is hacking their account they don’t have your best interests at heart. Read Twitter’s guide to compromised accounts here, which also has some excellent advice on what to do if you suspect your own account has been hacked.

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Twice the security

In an effort to counter the recent increase in Twitter hack attacks, Twitter has introduced a two-factor authentication system which requires users to enter an extra password sent to their mobile phone before they can access their account. The basic password protection is still the default though so users must activate this additional security from their settings menu.

Be password aware

Don’t underestimate the importance of using a strong password. Obvious mistakes include using a anything you can find on a Facebook page, or passwords such as 'password', or '123456'. A detailed Yahoo guide can be found here.

Weak passwords can leave you exposed to a brute force password hack, where hackers attempt to access your account using lists of common passwords until they get a ‘hit'. Making a note of your password on notepad apps on your various devices is also a common, but potentially dangerous mistake.

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Many of us use passwords that relate to family members, important dates or personal interests. A quick search through Facebook or Twitter profiles can give hackers useful information which can make cracking passwords extremely simple. Most hackers are opportunistic and will systematically try passwords using software until they get lucky.

An alphanumeric password which replaces letters from a particular word with numbers can make it harder to hack and, even better, use special characters you wouldn’t see in a normal word or number string. If you really struggle to remember complex passwords there are several password generating tools available such as 1Password.

Keep it to yourself

It may seem obvious but the more people who have access to your account, the more at risk your are to being hacked. Keep your sign in information to yourself and limit the number of people who have access to your account.

Beware untrusted links

A popular method for hacking social media accounts is to use ‘phishing’ emails and URLs which request your password and/or log-in details: these can even be sent out as Tweets from infected accounts.

These attacks appear to come from trusted sources, and the sites used often copy the look and feel of the original site, but it’s important to remember that there’s no reason for you to be asked personal log-in information by anyone just to see a message. Ever. If you receive an emailed or Tweeted link that seems unusual or unprompted then it’s probably best ignored.