14 DAY TRIAL // Hackers have managed to hijack the Twitter account of Irish singer Kian Egan and used it to post fake announcements that he was leaving Westlife, the boyband he co-founded.
Formed in 1998 with an original lineup of Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan and Brian McFadden, Westlife is one of the most successful Irish musical acts in history.
Egan had over 60,000 followers on Twitter and many of them did not took the news that he is leaving the band very well.
"It took my a very long time to come to this conclusion. I have had an amazing 12 years with the boys and wish them the best of luck in the future. "The boys are going to continue as a three piece. I AM leaving," the rogue status updates posted from the singer's Twitter account read.
About an hour later, Egan denied the rumor in an update posted from the account of his wife, English actress and singer Jodi Albert.
"Hi Everyone Kian here on Jodi's account. I am NOT Leaving Westlife. Someone has hacked into my account. Trying to sort out my account now. X" the singer wrote.
Egan is just the latest name on a long list of celebrities who had their Twitter accounts broken into and had to deny announcements made in their names.
Back in August 2010, hackers wrote from Axl Rose's account that "All upcoming Guns N' Roses dates are officially cancelled. Please contact your place of purchase for any refunds."
A band's spokesperson later confirmed that the announcement was fake and the band's European tour was proceeding as planned.
There are different methods used by hackers to compromise Twitter accounts. The latest example is that of Ashton Kutcher who had his account hijacked while attending the TED Conference because he failed to use HTTPS when connecting over an open wireless hotspot.