Verified Britney Spears Twitter account hacked

Britney Spears again appears to be the victim of miscreant hackers on her Twitter page.

The singer has a so-called 'Verified Twitter' account, which is supposed to represent a seal of legitimacy and authenticity.

Supporting this, her Twitter page proudly states, "Yes! This is the real Britney Spears! We've got updates from her team, her web site and yes, even Britney herself!", and the page has 3.75 million followers.

Rather embarrassing then that her two latest posts suggest someone else is in control of the site. Over the last few hours, "Britney" posted, "I hope that the new world order will arive [sic] as soon as possible!", while earlier today she wrote, "I give myself to Lucifer every day for it to arrive as quickly as possible. Glory to Satan." The last post before this reads, "Britney rocked it in Melbourne last night! Adam Leber, Manager", suggesting that the account takeover is recent.

What is worrying about the apparent breach is the fact that Verified accounts, which can be used by agencies and celebrities to ensure that their name and brand are not being exploited, are easy to hack. Although only a few pages have Verfied status, the firm is considering rolling out the service to other organisations, including businesses.

In June this year, a vulnerability in a third-party service through which users post photos to their Twitter profiles allowed hackers to falsely report that Britney Spears had died, through her own Twitpic account.