Former Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson’s Instagram account was taken down on Thursday following a hack.
The new leader of the opposition posted on ‘X’ formerly known as ‘Twitter’ saying she had been hacked and was working with the company to regain control.
Before it was removed, the profile picture depicted the image of a person with a red and white checkered scarf covering their face along with a Palestinian flag pinned to their vest.
The description read ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’, and a map of Israel was also posted with the caption ‘free Palestine’ in Arabic and English.
Additionally, the first comment from a handle also listed in her profile said, “We’ve just started” with a smiling emoji.
Cybersecurity Expert Ritesh Kotak says there appears to have been an increase in ‘prominent’ people and organizations getting hacked recently.
“It really creates an issue around trust and legitimacy, especially nowadays when it is really hard to decipher fact from fiction. Going to an account that you would normally get information from or somebody that you trust, and all of a sudden you see that it’s hacked, it creates a serious problem for legitimate content on the internet,” Kotak says.
He says prevention is better than a cure when it comes to hacking as hackers know how to keep a firm grip on people’s accounts.
“I deal with these types of cases all the time and putting the toothpaste back into the tube is really difficult and every situation is different, you do want to contact the platform but good luck getting a response.”
Kotak advises people to have security measures in place for their accounts such as multi-factor identification, backup recovery mechanisms, recovery keys, and maybe even signing up for a verification badge that gives people access to customer support and other security features.