Popular Kenyan musician David Mathenge alias Nameless has lost his verified Instagram account to suspected Iraqi hackers.
Kenyans online were quick to notice peculiar posts on the social media account belonging to the celebrated musician.
The fears were shortly after confirmed by Nameless' wife, Wahu Kagwi.
"Hey fam. Nameless' Instagram account has been hacked. We are working to resolve the issue but for now please disregard any posts coming from the Nameless Kenya account," Wahu said in a statement.
A spot check by Kenyans.co.ke revealed inconsistent posts from videos including one bearing the flag of the troubled Middle-Eastern Country - Iraq.
The musician's fans flooded the page with fury, castigating the hackers.
"How do you feel posting things on the account that isn't yours?
"What do you benefit from hacking someone's account?" some of the questions posed by Kenyans online who quickly spotted the unusual posts.
Digital strategist Adongo Kyalo noted that recovery of a hacked account is possible with the various social platforms providing steps to follow to complete the recovery efforts.
Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram offer step by step guide for a user to authenticate and verify their identity while also revoke access to any suspicious third-party hackers.
A look at the Facebook website FAQs section detailed a procedure in which users could follow in case they notice any suspicious activities within their page.
"If the email address associated with your Facebook account has changed, you can reverse this. When an email address is changed, we send a message to the previous email account with a special link. You can click this link to reverse the email address change and secure your account," Facebook's digital team revealed.
Other celebrities who have fallen victims to hackers include Kiss 100 presenter Felix Odiwuor alias Jalang'o who lost access to his Twitter account, NTV news anchor Dennis Okari who lost access to his Facebook account as well as comedian Flaqo who briefly lost access to his YouTube account in October 2020.
Further, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe was forced to abruptly end a virtual meeting with high-level dignitaries after hackers infiltrated the platform and shared obscene images and drawings.
A recent report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) revealed that 56 million cyber-attacks were detected in Kenya between October and December 2020.
This noted a 60 percent increase from 35 million threats detected in the previous quarter (from July to September 2020).
ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru in a previous interview, advocated for CAK to work with key players in the private sector and state agencies in order to manage cases of hacking and cybercrimes.
