Russian hackers are lurking in the comments of Britney Spears’ Instagram

By Danette Chavez | June 9, 2017 | 4:14pm

Aux Features Music

Nothing’s safe from Russian hackers these days—not democratic elections, nor even our celebrities’ social media accounts. Those carefully curated feeds draw a staggering number of eyes on Instagram, which is on track to hit a billion users this year, so naturally they’re now under threat from miscreants and malware. Just recently, Britney Spears’ Instagram account was infiltrated by hackers via a spam-like comment. Engadget picked up a report from Slovakian security firm ESET, which found a vaguely creepy sentence fragment posted on a photo of Spears in a mesh onesie. That seeming gibberish was later revealed to be some kind of beacon for malware.

Engadget notes that the comment, which was “actually a web address that required a fairly complicated, multi-step process to decipher,” has already been deleted from Spears’ account. The singer’s reps issued a statement, indicating that they’re “aware of this activity and have taken action against the responsible account,” lest the whole thing prove to be toxic. But even if you’re not a Grammy winner, look out for weird comments or seemingly meaningless hashtags in your own feeds.