If you are unable to access your Instagram account, then it is quite possible that your account has been hijacked. Reportedly, in the past few days, hundreds of Instagram accounts have been hacked. Some user accounts are partially accessible while some are completely hijacked.
In its recent blog post, Instagram acknowledged this hacking spree and claimed that many users are finding it difficult to access their accounts and the number of complaints is increasing every day.
See: Russian Hackers Control Malware via Britney Spears Instagram Posts
According to a report from Mashable, similar attacks have been observed on Instagram accounts and the hacking has been observed since the beginning of this month. Talkwalker, a data analysis platform, shows over 5,000 tweets posted from 899 user accounts that mentioned Instagram hacks in the past 7 days. A majority of these users are tweeting aggressively to seek help from Instagram’s Twitter account.
All of the users are sharing their stories regarding how difficult it is to access their accounts on Instagram. One such victim of Instagram account hacking is Krista. Krista’s account featured 4,500 followers and she claims that her account was hacked on Saturday.
According to Krista, she was logged out from her account forcefully and when she tried to log back in, a message appeared reporting that the username she was trying to login through did not exist. Surprisingly, her profile picture, password and public profile information also changed. When she tried to reset the password, she realized that her account has been hacked.
Krista is not the only one facing this issue, there are hundreds of users citing similar incidents where they were logged out uninformed and then couldn’t log back in. Reddit forum is full of such reports from Instagram users. As per the statistics on Google Trends, there has been a rapid rise in the search keywords Instagram Hacked. The surge was noted between August 8 and August 11.
Naturally, concerns about Instagram’s security proficiency and reliability are rising. In response to criticism from users, Instagram’s spokesperson stated:
“We work hard to provide the Instagram community with a safe and secure experience. When we become aware of an account that has been compromised, we shut off access to the account and the people who’ve been affected are put through a remediation process so they can reset their password and take other necessary steps to secure their accounts.”
Despite these measures, users are reporting about hacked Instagram accounts almost daily. Another user Chris Woznicki reported that he couldn’t access his account and prevent the hacking although the 2FA account verification option was enabled.
A common aspect is that the hackers don’t replace the pictures or videos uploaded on the account as soon as they hack it and only change the username and password to deprive the original user access to the account.
See: Stolen 6M Celebrities data from Instagram sold on Dark Web
Instagram is currently investigating the issue. Meanwhile, the company has issued a list of Do’s and Don’ts that users need to follow whether their account is hacked or not. In case you have been accessing random apps through your Instagram account then revoke it as soon as possible.
Also, if you receive an email informing about a change in email address, then quickly click on Revert this Change and change your password immediately. Choosing a stronger password definitely will be helpful in preventing the hack attack and don’t forget to enable 2FA authentication.
