Celebs say, what the Hack

Celebrities have it tough. Not only do they have to deal with their privacy being invaded, but in the recent past, their personal information has also become public domain, thanks to hackers. Kareena Kapoor Khan was the latest target when her income tax account was hacked into! The mom-to-be has since, launched an FIR after the hacker uploaded a bogus income tax return in her name! Hrithik Roshan too was a target of hackers when his Facebook account was hacked after which the hacker changed the display picture and live streamed on the star’s page. Earlier this year, Sandalwood actress Haripriya’s email account was hacked into by miscreants!

A number of celebrities have also been subject to the violation of their personal spaces. Supermodel Gigi Hadid was recently assaulted by a ‘prankster’ after walking the ramp and soon after, Kim Kardashian was publicly assaulted by the same prankster on the streets, despite her bodyguards being in the same vicinity!

Sandalwood actress Samyukta Hornad, whose Twitter account was hacked into, and who is quite active on social media says, “There is certainly a flip side to being famous. I think that these people gain some sort of sadistic pleasure out of impersonating people online and invading their privacy. The only way, is for us to be very careful and vigilant. And now more platforms are trying to help out by verifying users to minimise these cases. When my account was hacked, I lost all of my followers and everything I had posted, but now I have a smart team backing me to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Speaking about the issue, a psychologist opines, “Celebrities do tend to become easy targets once they are in the limelight. They are subject to everything including online bullies and haters. As for the person targeting them, the reasons could be abundant — from jealousy to thinking it’s a way for them to get their five seconds of fame with the help of a scandal. But, they’re mostly people who seek attention and want to attain it in any way that they can, without really considering the consequences and thinking about right and wrong,” says Sowmya, a clinical psychologist.