In the winter finale of the popular television show "Grey's Anatomy," there was an unexpected guest star: ransomware.

The social media company appears to have spent the long weekend buying up internet domains that hackers might try to use to sell contact information stolen last week from 6 million accounts.

Instagram says it is continuing to investigate a data breach linked to a flaw in its application programing interface or API which exposed user names, phone numbers and email addresses.

In the digital age, a simple scheme has turned into a worthwhile endeavor for criminals and had an unprecedentedly strong effect on media and entertainment companies in the process.