The Instagram account of Australian fashion blogger Rozalia Russian was hijacked by an American hacker, who extorted $5,000 from her before handing back her credentials, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.Russian, who has over 181,000 combined followers on her @rozalia_russian Instragram page and her @rozalia.com.au Instagram online store page, knew something was amiss when fake followers started posting ads on her page, the report explains. Meanwhile, legit followers were un-following her after receiving irritating spam. Russian attempted to log in, but someone had changed her credentials.Russian said her own IT expert traced the attack to a college student in the U.S., who demanded the $5,000 payment when Russian called him directly. Russian said she and a travel blogger friend who was also hacked paid the ransom together.
Threat Management, Network Security
Australian fashion blogger’s Instragram account reportedly hijacked
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Bradley Barth
As director of multimedia content strategy at CyberRisk Alliance, Bradley Barth develops content for online conferences, webcasts, podcasts video/multimedia projects — often serving as moderator or host. For nearly six years, he wrote and reported for SC Media as deputy editor and, before that, senior reporter. He was previously a program executive with the tech-focused PR firm Voxus. Past journalistic experience includes stints as business editor at Executive Technology, a staff writer at New York Sportscene and a freelance journalist covering travel and entertainment. In his spare time, Bradley also writes screenplays.
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