The suspected hackers (known collectively as Turla) are believed to have used Spears’s comments section to communicate and spread malicious software.
In February, an Instagram user with the handle @asmith215 commented under one of Spears’s photos: “#2hot make loved to her, uupss #Hot #X,” which is basically a hidden code for a bit.ly link that leads to “a command-and-control (C&C) server—giving it instructions on what to do and retrieve stolen data,” Business Insider reports:
Security researchers at Slovakian security firm ESET have been looking into Turla, a long-running hacking group believed to be linked to the Russian government that has targeted foreign governments, militaries, educational institutions and more.
And they found something pretty unusual, they wrote in a blog post: The malware has been receiving instructions via a seemingly innocuous comment on one of Britney Spears’ Instagram photos.
In other words, Brit’s precious IG is the site of some shifty activity. The firm believes the above Instagram comment may have been executed as a test because “there were only 17 hits recorded.” Beware, Brit!
