Hackers breach Taylor Swift Twitter, Instagram; threaten to release ‘nudes’
In this December 31, 2014 file photo, US singer Taylor Swift performs during New Yearís Eve celebrations at the Times Square in New York. Taylor Swift on January 27, 2015 scoffed at a hacker who took over her social media accounts and threatened to release nude pictures, with the pop star saying none existed. AFP FILE PHOTO
NEW YORK, United States – Taylor Swift on Tuesday scoffed at a hacker who took over her social media accounts and threatened to release nude pictures, with the pop star saying none existed.
The singer’s Twitter and Instagram accounts were briefly seized by at least one hacker who vowed to release naked pictures of Swift if supporters paid enough in the form of the virtual currency bitcoin.
“Any hackers saying they have ‘nudes’?” Swift wrote after retaking control of her Twitter account. “Psssh you’d love that wouldn’t you! Have fun photoshopping cause you got NOTHING.”
Little was known about the presumed hacker, whose account was suspended by Twitter. The user who threatened to release nude photos had the Twitter handle @lizzard and signed as lizard in Japanese.
@lizzard, in a Twitter biography before the account was suspended, claimed — incongruously — to be affiliated at once with the Islamic State extremist group, the hactivist collective Anonymous and North Korea.
Swift joked about the hacking, writing, “This is why I’m scared of technology.”
Swift, whose “1989” was by far the best-selling US album released last year, famously pulled all of her music from Spotify as she said that the streaming service insufficiently compensated artists, charges denied by the Swedish company.
But Swift is intensively active on other parts of the Internet. She is one of only four people with more than 50 million followers on Twitter. The others are US President Barack Obama and fellow pop stars Katy Perry and Justin Bieber.
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