14 DAY TRIAL // Canadian singer Justin Bieber has a lot of fans, but as it turns out, there are a lot of people that dislike him a great deal. An individual from the latter category hacked his Twitter account and posted a tweet with the #biebermy[expletive] hashtag.
Justin Bieber proudly announced that there were 19 million Beliebers, marked by the fact that his Twitter feed was being followed by 19 million users.
An anti-Bieber individual who is probably very good at guessing passwords, or someone who managed to phish the celebrities Twitter credentials, temporarily took over the account and posted a message to his fans.
“19 million my [backside] #biebermy[expletive]” wrote the angry hacker.
He also started blocking some of the star’s followers, probably trying to make the number of followers drop under 19 million.
According to ZDNet, the tweet was deleted shortly and the singer didn’t make any comments regarding the incident.
“If you're one of Justin Bieber's many fans, please learn something from your idol's misfortune. Always choose a strong, secure password for your Twitter account and make sure that you are not using it on any other websites, and never share it with anyone else,” Graham Cluley of Sophos said.
The large number of similar incidents that have occurred lately demonstrates that many Twitter accounts are an easy target for hackers, especially the ones of public figures.
If they use simple passwords such as pet names, or birth dates, it’s not too difficult for a cybercrook to guess them as the information is most likely publicly available.
On the other hand, as Mr Cluley points out, when people travel a lot, they may use other people’s computers, or even those from hotel lobbies, to sign in to their account.
Their own computers may be properly protected against malware, but many computers located in public places are infected with keyloggers that can easily steal a password.
Note. My Twitter account has been erroneously suspended. While this is sorted out, you can contact me via my author profile.