The Instagram account for the Obama White House was hacked, TMZ reported Sunday. The account for @obamawhitehouse posted, among other things, an AI-generated image alongside the caption, “The White House is under Shiites’ control.”
The account was last updated in 2017. The account has offered no statement on the hacking.
Obama’s Twitter account was previously hacked in July 2020. The accounts of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Joe Biden were also hacked in the same attack. The accounts for Gates and Musk promised bitcoin payments to followers (as did the account of Kanye West).
The FBI told NBC News at the time it was aware that the “security incident involving several Twitter accounts belonging to high profile individuals” and acknowledged that the hackers seemed to want to “perpetuate cryptocurrency fraud.”
“We advise the public not to fall victim to this scam by sending cryptocurrency or money in relation to this incident,” the FBI also told NBC News.
Jeff Bezos also saw his account hacked, and the the Amazon found reportedly promised to “give back to my community” according to the perpatrators of the attack. Twitter (now X) also said at the time, “We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.”
In 2014 the Washington Post reported hackers believed to be working for the Russian government had gained access to some unclassified computer systems at the White House. “In the course of assessing recent threats, we identified activity of concern on the unclassified Executive Office of the President network,” a White House official said at the time. “We took immediate measures to evaluate and mitigate the activity.”
