Hackers have breached high-profile TikTok accounts, such as those belonging to hotel heiress Paris Hilton and the official CNN page, as reported.
The malware is spreading through TikTok’s direct messaging feature, as reported by Forbes on Tuesday.
This hack is identified as a “zero-day” attack, meaning the hacker discovered the vulnerability before the software developers, leaving them with “zero days” to fix it.
Such attacks exploit vulnerabilities that can take developers days or weeks to identify and resolve.
CNN had to take down its TikTok account for several days after a hacker breached it last week, according to Semafor.
A spokesperson for the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned news channel told Semafor they are “working with TikTok on the backend on additional cybersecurity measures” to secure the account ahead of this fall’s presidential election.
Several CNN staffers revealed to Semafor that the network had become lax in its cybersecurity practices.
One staffer mentioned that dozens of colleagues had access to the TikTok account. However, another source indicated that the breach did not seem to be due to internal access at CNN.
A TikTok spokesperson denied that Hilton’s account was hacked, stating, “Our security team is aware of a potential exploit targeting a number of high-profile accounts.
We have taken measures to stop this attack and prevent it from happening in the future. We’re working directly with affected account owners to restore access, if needed.”
Last summer, TikTok admitted that up to 700,000 accounts in Turkey were compromised due to insecure two-factor authentication methods.
In 2022, Microsoft researchers found a vulnerability in TikTok that allowed hackers to take over accounts with a single click.
American lawmakers have long been suspicious of TikTok, the popular social media app owned by Chinese tech conglomerate ByteDance.
President Biden signed a measure into law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations due to concerns over American users’ private data potentially being accessed by the Chinese government.
ByteDance has until January to sell TikTok or face a US ban, and has filed a lawsuit against the law, denying that user data is at risk.
