Widespread Instagram hack locking users out of accounts

If you spend a lot of time on Instagram, yous may want to brand sure your account is locked down with 2-factor authentication. Mashable reports that the photo-sharing service has seen a recent uptick in occurrences of hacked accounts since the beginning of August. Interestingly, several users who have been hacked have reported similar changes to their accounts, pointing to a potentially coordinated effort.

Co-ordinate to the written report, users share several things in common: they'll abruptly exist logged out of their accounts, and their username volition no longer exist once they try to log back in. In add-on to the changed handle, their profile picture, forth with the email and phone number associated with the account, will be changed as well. From Mashable:

On Twitter, there have been more than 100 of these types of anecdotal reports in the last 24 hours alone. According to data from analytics platform Talkwalker, in that location accept been more than 5,000 tweets from 899 accounts mentioning Instagram hacks just in the last vii days. Many of these users have been badly tweeting at Instagram's Twitter account for help.

Curiously, several users report having their profile pictures set up to a Disney or Pixar grapheme. Additionally, the electronic mail associated with the hacked accounts is switched to a Russian .ru email accost. Personal data on the accounts is typically deleted, and the hacker or hackers don't appear to be using the accounts to make any new posts.

If you lot're worried about your account being hacked, your best bet is to brand sure you're using a secure password and two-factor authentication. However, it's worth noting that two-cistron authentication notwithstanding wasn't able to keep an account safe in at to the lowest degree ane case. From Mashable:

The extra security mensurate didn't protect Chris Woznicki, who was using two-gene hallmark at the time his account was hacked 10 days agone. Woznicki says Instagram sent him security emails notifying him the email address on his account had been changed (once again, to a .ru accost) and 2FA had been disabled. But by the time he saw the messages, information technology was too belatedly and he had already lost admission to his business relationship, which had 660 followers. Others have reported similar occurrences.

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