Barack Obama's White House Instagram page hacked

A high-profile cyber breach has hit a piece of digital presidential history. According to a report by entertainment news outlet TMZ, the official archived White House Instagram page from the Barack Obama administration was briefly compromised over the weekend.

The breach was caught on Sunday after the account—which operates under the verified handle @obamawhitehouse and commands 2.4 million followers—began pushing out several highly unusual posts and temporary Instagram stories, News.Az reports, citing Anadolu Agency.

The most jarring piece of unauthorized content was an AI-generated image paired with a caption that roughly translated to: "The White House is under Shiites' control."

Meta, the parent company of Instagram, quickly stepped in. A spokesperson confirmed the security breach to TMZ on Monday, stating that tech teams have since successfully secured the historical account and wiped all unauthorized posts from the grid.

Prior to the weekend security scare, the page had been largely dormant. The last legitimate, official update published to the account was posted on January 20, 2017—the exact day Donald Trump was sworn into office and the digital keys were transferred over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Neither Meta nor federal officials have released details regarding who was behind the cyberattack or how the security protocol failed. Former President Obama's massive, active personal account (@barackobama), which boasts 42.2 million followers, was entirely unaffected by the incident.

News.Az 

By Aysel Mammadzada