Pierluigi Paganini September 10, 2019

The Instagram account of Robert Downey Jr. has been hacked, he is the last celebrity in order of time that had the social media accounts compromised.

Robert Downey Jr. Instagram account has been hacked, in this case the attacker did not publish offensive messages, but attempted to monetize their efforts by posting fake giveaways for Apple products.

Last week, the Twitter account of Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Twitter, was hacked by a group called the Chuckling Squad, the same crew that allegedly compromised the account of the actress Chloë Moretz.

The hackers posted on the Chloë Moretz’s account the Jack Dorsey’s alleged social security number as well as addresses, phone numbers and a launched a call for providing nude pics.

In the above cases, the hackers did not exploit a flaw in Twitter, instead, they carried out SIM swapping attacks on the victims targeting their mobile operators.

At the time is not clear how hackers took over the Robert Downey Jr’s Instagram, the hackers posted messages saying that the popular actor was allegedly giving away 2,000 iPhone XS devices and directing followers to his Story page for more offers like this.

The hackers also published a link, created with the Bitly URL shortening service, in the account bio that was pointing to a survey page likely set up to collect personal information.

As visible in the image above, the iPhone XS devices were not the only products used to lure followers to the survey page. Tesla cars, Apple Watch, MacBook Pro computers, and gift cards were also used as temptations.The changes did not survive for long, though.

J.A.R.V.I.S. was probably caught unaware on this one, but as the actor’s Twitter followers started to ask questions about the legitimacy of the giveaway, Robert Downey Jr’s publicity team posted a warning for fans to “steer clear” of the Instagram account until the issue was sorted out.

The actor regained control of his Instagram shortly after the incident, the posted the following message:

Robert Downey Jr’s Instagram account has 43.2 million, hacking it is possible to target millions of unaware fans. Hackers could perform various malicious activities such as distributing malware to control their machines or conduct any kind of scam.

In this case, the hackers focused on collecting personal information of the fan, a circumstance that suggests they could use this data for attacks later.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Robert Downey Jr, hacking)

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