Scammers hijack two of Ksenia Sobchak’s Telegram channels and post a supposed ‘leaked correspondence’ confession
Scammers broke into two Telegram channels belonging to journalist Ksenia Sobchak’s media holding: “Krovavaya Barynya” (“Bloody Lady”), which has 1.14 million subscribers, and “Sobchak,” which has 372,000. The hack was reported by Ostorozhno Novosti, another channel in the holding.
“Posts appearing there since 2 p.m. are not from us. Please do not click on any links that may appear there, and be wary of fake messages in the channels. We are working to restore access,” the holding said in a statement.
After 2 p.m., a post appeared in the “Sobchak” channel purportedly from Ksenia Sobchak, claiming that hackers had posted her correspondence in a private channel. Attached to the post were what it called “fragments” of the correspondence. The post has since been deleted.
The screenshots attached to the post showed someone purporting to be Sobchak discussing the holding’s editorial policy, including its coverage of the fuel crisis and Ukrainian strikes on Russia.
Based on the screenshots, the hacker group BlackMirror may have been involved in leaking the correspondence.
Update. Three hours after the hack, staff at the holding reported that they had regained access to the “Krovavaya Barynya” and “Sobchak” channels.
The “Ostorozhno Media” holding, founded by Ksenia Sobchak, brings together several projects, including the YouTube channel “Ostorozhno: Sobchak,” the podcast studio “Ostorozhno: Podcasty!” (“Careful: Podcasts!”), and a number of Telegram channels — among them Ostorozhno Novosti, “Ostorozhno: Moskvichka” (a society column), and Sobchak’s personal social media accounts.
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