Glam Adelaide locked out of Instagram account, hackers demand $2,000 ransom

Glam Adelaide has been locked out of its own account. (Instagram: Glam Adelaide)

Entertainment information hub Glam Adelaide has been held to ransom by hackers who have taken over its popular Instagram account.

The social media account, which has 114,000 followers, was compromised on Tuesday after Glam Adelaide was tricked by a bogus copyright infringement notice.

The hackers have replaced the profile image with Batman's Joker, as played by the late Heath Ledger in 2008, and left a note saying the account "is held to be s*ld back to its owner", along with a link to a WhatsApp number.

Glam Adelaide founder Kelly Noble told ABC Radio Adelaide she had no intention of paying the hacker's ransom demand of $2,000.

An image of the late Heath Ledger's Joker has been used by the hackers on Glam Adelaide's profile. (www.imdb.com)

She said the website was Glam Adelaide's main business.

Ms Noble said as well as setting up an alternative Instagram account the organisation was working to get its first one back "without dealing with the hackers".

"We've been running that for about 10 years," she said.

"It's a bit devastating because there's thousands and thousands of hours of work that has gone into that.

Australians have been receiving an increasing number of phishing texts like this one. (ABC Radio Adelaide: Malcolm Sutton)

Cybercrime surge

Cybercrime has surged during the pandemic as criminals take advantage of the higher number of people working from home.

Last July the Australian Cyber Security Centre reported a 60 per cent increase in ransomware attacks against Australian entities, with organisations quietly paying millions in ransoms to hackers.

By September, the federal government agency estimated Australian organisations and individuals had paid an astonishing $33 billion in the past year, either to hackers or in costs associated their attacks.

Ms Noble said Glam Adelaide had been getting "targeted a lot".

"We had a particularly sophisticated one which managed to mask the email address, because normally the [fake] email address gives it away," she said.

"It was a copyright infringement email, and we do occasionally get genuine ones.

Rather than pay the ransom, however, she said Glam Adelaide would use the money to host a series of cyber safety webinars and invest "back into the community that helped build us up".

She said there would be a particular focus on the importance of setting up two-factor authenticator apps for software and social media accounts.