The official Instagram account of the Obama-era White House fell victim to a hack on Sunday, as it was flooded with odd memes.
An unknown hacker uploaded several images to the @obamawhitehouse account, including an AI-created picture falsely suggesting that the White House was under Shiite rule, reports TMZ.
Additionally, the hacker posted content on the account’s Instagram Stories.
Meta, Instagram’s parent company, has confirmed that the account is now secure and all unauthorized posts have been deleted.
Prior to this incident, the account had not been updated since 2017, coinciding with President Donald Trump’s first term in office.
This is not the first time the account has been compromised; it was previously hacked in July 2020, alongside high-profile accounts belonging to Joe Biden, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk.
The accounts for Gates and Musk promised Bitcoin payments to followers.
As a result, Twitter – now called X – temporarily restricted verified accounts.
The official page for the Obama White House was hacked on Sunday
The unidentified hacker added some pictures to the @obamawhitehouse account, including an AI-generated image that claimed the White House was now under Shiite control
The hacker also shared posts to the official account’s Instagram Stories
The FBI told NBC News at the time it was aware of a ‘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 bureau said.
The hacker in that case, Joseph James O’Connor, of the UK, pleaded guilty in the US to charges including computer intrusion, wire fraud and extortion and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2023.
He had been arrested in Spain in 2021 and was extradited to the US after Spain’s High Court ruled that America was the best place to prosecute him because the evidence and the victims were there.
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service then announced last year it had obtained a civil recovery order to seize 42 Bitcoin and other crypto assets linked to the scam, equating to $5.4 million.
‘We were able to use the full force of the powers available to us to ensure that even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality,’ prosecutor Adrian Foster said.
The latest attack comes as US negotiators continue to try to work out a peace deal with leaders in Iran.
Joseph James O’Connor, of the UK, pleaded guilty in the US to charges including computer intrusion, wire fraud and extortion in connection with a hack in July 2020
A temporary ceasefire deal was reached in April, but both Washington and Tehran have accused each other of violations since then.
Ongoing negotiations have since stalled, but President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would make a ‘final determination’ about a proposed deal during a meeting with advisers in the Situation Room.
The president called for Iran to agree never to possess a nuclear weapon and immediately open the Strait in both directions, without tolls or restrictions.
Meanwhile, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Saturday that troops are preparing to ‘recommence if necessary.’
Hegseth issued a thinly veiled threat while speaking about the negotiations at the Shangri-La Dialogue forum for defense leaders in Singapore.
‘Our ability to recommence if necessary…we are more than capable,’ Hegseth said, adding, ‘Our stockpiles are more than suited for that, both there and around the globe, so we’re in a very good place.’
He added that Trump was ‘patient’ and wanted to make a ‘great deal’ with Iran that ensures the country will not have access to a nuclear weapon.
The defense secretary said that Iran knows ‘very, very clearly’ what the US expects and called the negotiations ‘productive,’ adding that he was ‘quite confident’ that Trump could secure a deal.
