As more and more celebrities join the social networking
bandwagon, they also become increasingly vulnerable to hacking. From
heads of states to Hollywood celebrities, this year saw a series of
hacking incidents involving high-profile victims. Check out the top 10
most controversial ones...
Selena Gomez's Twitter and Facebook
fans woke up to an uncharacteristic post about her boyfriend Justin
Bieber. The venomous post screamed "Oh yeah, JUSTIN BIEBER
SUCKS!!!!!!!". The teen singer immediately clarified that it was a case
of hacking and she had nothing to do with the post.
Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher, who used to host the celebrity prank show, Punk'd,
got a taste of is medicine his Twitter account @aplusk was hacked. A
tweet sent to his followers said, "Ashton, you've been Punk'd. This
account is not secure. Dude, where's my SSL?"
Kim
Kardashian went into a panic mode when her Twitter account was hacked
by internet pranksters this year. On discovering fake tweets posted by
an imposter, the socialite appealed to bosses of the site to help
restore the security on her account.
In
one of the biggest data breaches, Sony admitted to an external
intrusion which exposed personal information of 77 million PlayStation
Network users. The PlayStation maker warned users that the hackers might
have access to customers' vital information, including names,
birthdates, physical and e-mail addresses, and logins, handles and
credit card details.
Hackers defaced a website belonging to Blackberry maker Research in Motion soon after the company
revealed its plans to support police investigating the London riots.
The hackers posted on the blog: "No Blackberry you will NOT assist the
police." Blackberry took off the blog briefly and restored it to its
original form.
In
one of the most shocking security breach incident, around two lakhs
Facebook accounts were hacked in Bangalore. The users' photos and videos
were morphed and the sleazy links mailed to friends and families
overnight.
A scam on Lady Gaga's Facebook page
fooled many fans into clicking the link to win an iPad. The contest
rules and registration were presented as a link to a Blogspot page.
"Lady Gaga's new iPad comes out in 3 days! So for the next 72 hours we
will be hosting a massive giveaway to all the Mother Monster fans. Sign up and receive your special Lady Gaga edition iPad in time for the Holidays!"
hackers posted on her Facebook page. The presence of the fake iPad
offer didn't go unnoticed, and was taken down within an hour.
Hackers played a cruel joke on French
President Nicolas Sarkozy when they posted a fake resignation letter
from his Facebook page. The post, which went out to more than 350,000
'friends' of the head of the state read like this: "Dear compatriots,
given the exceptional circumstances our country is experiencing, I have
decided in my spirit and conscience not to run for office again at the
end of my mandate in 2012".
Thailand's Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, fell victim to the hacking menace when her Twitter account was hacked. Her followers received tweets criticizing her political experience and incompetence. The tweets also suggested that she was her brother's (former Prime Minister - Thaksin Shinawatra) puppet.
While
celebrities and popular figures have been the target of hackers, it was
media house Fox News who faced their ire in July this year. In a
gruesome joke, the hackers tweeted the death of president Obama. Some of
the tweets read like this: @BarackObama has just passed. The President
is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead."
This was followed by more on the same lines claiming that Obama was shot
at a restaurant while campaigning.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment