{"id":96499,"date":"2019-08-24T13:46:27","date_gmt":"2019-08-24T20:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/securingtomorrow.mcafee.com\/?p=96499"},"modified":"2025-08-29T02:02:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T09:02:41","slug":"ellen-degeneres-instagram-hack-what-you-can-do-to-protect-your-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/internet-security\/ellen-degeneres-instagram-hack-what-you-can-do-to-protect-your-account\/","title":{"rendered":"Ellen DeGeneres Instagram Hack: What You Can Do to Protect Your Account"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today was not an easy morning for Ellen DeGeneres. She woke to find that her Instagram account was briefly hacked according to the talk show host\u2019s Twitter and Yahoo Entertainment<\/a>. A series of giveaways offering free Tesla cars, MacBooks, and more, were posted to the talk show host\u2019s account last night. After seeing the posts, some of her followers became skeptical and warned her of the suspicious behavior. They were smart to flag the giveaways as untrustworthy because DeGeneres confirmed<\/a> that her Instagram was in fact affected by malicious activity.<\/p>\n

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While Ellen joked about \u201cpassword\u201d not being the most secure password, it\u2019s always a best practice to use strong passwords that differ from each of your other accounts to avoid easy break-ins from cybercriminals.<\/p>\n

One of the central reasons hackers target social media accounts<\/a> is to retrieve stored personal information. Once cybercriminals log into an account, they have access to everything that has ever been shared with the platform, such as date of birth, email, hometown, and answers to security questions. They then could potentially use this information to try to log into other accounts or even steal the person\u2019s identity, depending on the level of information they have access to.<\/p>\n

Another motive for hijacking a user\u2019s social media account is to spread phishing scams<\/a> or malware<\/a> amongst the user’s network. In DeGeneres\u2019 case, her 76 million Instagram followers were prompted to click on links that were scams disguised as giveaways so hackers could steal their personal information. In other cases, hackers will use adware<\/a> so they can profit off of clicks and gain access to even more valuable information from you and your contacts. Sometimes these cybercriminals will post publicly on your behalf to reach your entire network, and other times they will read through private messages and communicate with your close network directly.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just celebrities that are vulnerable to cybercriminals. In fact, over 22% of internet users<\/a>\u00a0reported that their online accounts have been hacked at least once, and more than 14% said that they were hacked more than once. If your account gets hacked, the first step is to change your password right away and notify your network, so they don\u2019t click on any specious links.<\/p>\n

Social Media Best Practices<\/h2>\n

The good news is that by taking proper precautions, you can significantly reduce risk to help keep your account safe. Here are five best practices for protecting your social media accounts from malicious activity:<\/strong><\/p>\n