MCCARTNEY GETS HACKED

The former Beatle's online page was infected by the 'LuckySploit Toolkit' on Saturday night (04Apr09) - a program which allows digital thieves to access the personal details of anyone using the site by tracking their keystrokes.

Paris Hilton fell victim to the same scheme back in January (09).

Experts at SafeScan, the company which first spotted the problem with McCartney's website, claim the hack began minutes after the musician appeared on stage at a benefit concert in New York with his former bandmate, Ringo Starr.

A spokesman for the firm tells British newspaper The Independent, "They obviously chose that time because they knew the site would be busy. We've seen this before with Paris Hilton and it can cause all sorts of problems. One of our clients was actually using (McCartney's) site and reported it. Hackers like these do around one site a week and obviously the more high-profile it is, the better."

A representative for McCartney has confirmed that all the problems with the website have now been resolved and fans are safe to get back online: "Once we discovered what was going on, we sorted it out immediately."