Keane tells of cyber hacking terror
FORMER TV3 host Lorraine Keane has spoken of her terror after a cyber gang hacked her social media channels and sought a ransom before threatening to delete her accounts.
Ms Keane, 48, who uses her Instagram to do live broadcasts as well as promote her charity work, fell victim to a sinister phishing scam.
A message on her Instagram said she was violating advertising rules, which she initially ignored, but when a similar message complete with the Insta logo appeared in her email, she distractedly clinked on the link.
Almost immediately she began to receive messages warning her all of her accounts including her Twitter would be wiped within 24 hours.
‘It was really scary that this can happen so easily,’ Ms Keane said.
‘I did something that I’m always telling the kids not to do and that was to clink on a link I shouldn’t have, but I was distracted and it really did look like the real thing.
‘I started getting texts demanding $100 but I didn’t engage because I knew if you paid that they would come back for more.
‘In fact, what happened was my account was sold on to another group and they demanded $1,000 but again I didn’t respond to it.’
Lorraine has built up a loyal following of almost 40,000 followers on Instagram over the past six years, but she could only watch helplessly as, one by one, her posts were deleted by the gang.
Bizarrely, images of ‘creepy men’ and ‘very sexy young ones’ started to appear on her account as the hackers started to ramp up the pressure.
When she failed to get through to Facebook, in desperation she went to the gardaí who did help her get her accounts locked.
‘It’s like having your house burgled because you are being told they might have been able to get into your Wi-Fi so you need to change all of your passwords… it’s frightening,’ she said. ‘I was getting messages all through the night right up until Sunday morning.
‘They were telling me they were just one button away from deleting everything. I felt like someone had just gone and put a match to my entire business.’
Ms Keane has since regained control of her accounts and is hopeful of getting all of her data back.