Screengrab of Selena Gomez’ hacked Instagram account (approximately 11:45 am PT). Hackers posted nude images of Justin Bieber from 2015.
Selena Gomez has the single largest Instagram account in the world. So how did it just get hacked?
Selena Gomez’s Instagram account suffered a major breach today (Monday), raising fresh questions about internet security for artists. Within minutes, the compromised account was spilling naked pictures of Justin Bieber, complemented by snarky comments about the singer’s size.
According to preliminary details, the breach lasted roughly 10-15 minutes. Then, a complete shutdown occurred. Several minutes later, a restored, pre-hacked version appeared.
This was a blatantly obvious breach. Gomez was highly unlikely to be posting naked pictures of Justin Bieber, snapped back in 2015. She was even less likely to poke fun at Bieber’s size. All of that was enough to ring serious alarms, probably at Instagram HQ itself.
At this stage, it remains unclear how the breach occurred. But the nature of the hack suggests a prank, instead of a more malicious intent.
There’s no comment yet from Selena Gomez’s camp.
But the extremely high-profile crack is putting panic into a few major artist teams, with some reportedly taking routine measures to re-secure their accounts. That includes updating passwords and re-checking security measures, among other customary steps.
The pics were taken at the couples’ Bora Bora vacation getaway, further underlining the complete lack of privacy high-profiles stars now face. Bieber admitted to feeling ‘super violated’ at the time.
Nobody’s safe.
Actually, this is becoming a much bigger problem for artists of all sizes. Just recently, DMN featured a number of independent artists that had suffered major Facebook hacks. Unfortunately, Facebook offers little support for anyone but the largest artists (if that).
+ Warning: Facebook Will Not Help You If Your Page Gets Hacked!
Meanwhile, the music industry itself is continuing to reframe its happy-go-lucky idea of social media. Earlier, Selena Gomez herself admitted to being totally burnt out on social media, and never checking her own Instagram. In fact, the artist has since deleted the app and forgot her password.
Here’s what she told Vogue earlier this year.
“As soon as I became the most followed person on Instagram, I sort of freaked out. It had become so consuming to me. It’s what I woke up to and went to sleep to. I was an addict, and it felt like I was seeing things I didn’t want to see. Like it was putting things in my head that I didn’t want to care about. I always end up feeling like s–t when I look at Instagram. Which is why I’m kind of under the radar, ghosting it a bit.”
That ‘ghosting’ is proving to be a very lucrative approach. Last year, Gomez pulled an estimated $550,000 for one sponsored Instagram post (for Coca-Cola). Since that point, the artist continued to do branding deals, fetching potentially millions in revenue.
Actually, this is becoming a much bigger problem for artists of all sizes.
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Hacker was Abel @ XO