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Hundreds of Instagram Users Say Their Accounts Have Been Compromised By What Appears To Be a Coordinated Attack (mashable.com)

Posted by msmash on from the security-woes dept.

A number of people have reported having their Instagram accounts hacked this month, Mashable reports, and many of these hacks appear to have taken the same approach. From a report: Users suddenly find themselves logged out of their accounts and when they try to log back in, they discover that their handle, profile image, contact info and bios have all been changed. Often the profile image has been changed to a Disney or Pixar character and the email address connected to the account is changed to one with a .ru Russian domain, according to Mashable. Some even had their two-factor authentication turned off by hackers. A handful of Instagram users reported the same details to Mashable as have hundreds of others who have taken to Twitter and Reddit to report hacks of their accounts.

20 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. russia by MJhasHIV · · Score: 1

    has instagram? sorry

    1. Re:russia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      In Latvia, no instagram, only potatogram and many pictures of potato (often same potato)

  2. Impressive by Comboman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Users suddenly find themselves logged out of their accounts and when they try to log back in, they discover that their handle, profile image, contact info and bios have all been changed.

    Wow, I didn't think it was possible for a web hack to make changes to a machine's BIOS.

    --
    Support Right To Repair Legislation.
    1. Re:Impressive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      While I lament the incompetence of today journalists, they do still generally understand the difference between bios and BIOS. An apostrophe you say? Nay good sir, its a pluralism, not a possessive.

    2. Re:Impressive by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      No problem at all, it's called an operating system update firmware hack. They simply get your OS or more accurately M$'s OS to hack your system and rewrite the firmware on not only the motherboard but all hard disk drives, now why the hell do you think M$ wanted compulsory operating system updates and you are required to have a uniquely identifiable computer. So one security letter latter and you BIOS does what they want it to do, within minutes on Windows 10 and Windows 7 or 8.1 who knows how long they will have to wait, still uniquely identifiable, just no compulsory back door, for the probe, so not so funny now, huh ;D.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  3. Newsworthy by mdm-adph · · Score: 1

    Wow -- "hundreds" of users out of a service that has 100's of millions? Is this really newsworthy? There's probably more users of Instagram that lose access to their accounts every day because they forget their passwords.

    --
    It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
    1. Re:Newsworthy by Aqualung812 · · Score: 2

      Wow -- "hundreds" of users out of a service that has 100's of millions? Is this really newsworthy?

      When each of those hundreds has a few thousand followers, it becomes newsworthy. Even if I think Instagram needs to die.

      --
      Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
    2. Re:Newsworthy by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but that's just the ones who both noticed and reported it.

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      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    3. Re:Newsworthy by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Probably many of instagram's competitors believes the same thing, not for good reasons of course, just competition. I wonder, how much does it cost to hire Russian hackers to attack your competitors companies, to cripple them. Hey, due to the bullshit hostility between Russia and the US, no one is ever going to investigate it properly, as long as you are paying from the US to hackers in Russia, who will attack a US company in the US, investigation is stopped dead, with the Democrats screaming Russia, Russia, Russia. Just pick Russian hackers who have not been economically sanction by the US government and you'll avoid any trade restriction problems.

      All so silly ;D.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  4. Re:ok ok, this is scarry.. I mean.. by Narcocide · · Score: 2

    Yes, they're cheaping out on security at every level, from staffing to decision making. This is often reported on as "ageism" but it's not just about age. It's about malleability. The technology exists, but can't be deployed safely or maintained reasonably by the type of fresh-faced college grads who won't notice that their CEO is selling backdoor access to customer data on the black market.

  5. Isn't instagram facebook by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

    I avoid social media- but am I not correct in understanding that Instagram is one of Facebook's mini social networks. If you hack an instagram account- do you also by shared id take over their facebook account, or are the two kept separate?

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    1. Re:Isn't instagram facebook by ryanmetcalf · · Score: 1

      Obnoxiously is a separate login and detached ecosystem
      Venmo and their parent company PayPal (I still don't understand why people are migrating from PayPal to Venmo, it's got fewer features) do the same thing.

    2. Re:Isn't instagram facebook by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Obnoxiously is a separate login and detached ecosystem

      Venmo and their parent company PayPal (I still don't understand why people are migrating from PayPal to Venmo, it's got fewer features) do the same thing.

      As annoying as that might be- it probably saved people getting compromised in more than one network in this instance.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  6. Roger Stone by fedos · · Score: 1

    If Roger Stone had only held off, he could have used this as an excuse.

  7. Re:Assassinate Vladimir Putin by Atrox+Canis · · Score: 1

    I fail to see the connection between supposedly Russian email address domains and Trump committing treason. But, buy that same tortured logic, Clinton is just as likely to be involved in nefarious dealings related to email.

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    Charter Member of The Committee Group For The Elimination And Eradication Of Repetitive Redundancy
  8. received many emails from Instagram by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    asking me if I needed to reset my password for my Instagram account. Been happening for a month or more

    1. Re:received many emails from Instagram by mattack2 · · Score: 1

      You mean the "having problems logging in?" emails.. yeah.

  9. Meh. by PPH · · Score: 1

    /b/ is raiding the camwhores again.

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    Have gnu, will travel.
  10. Re:Misleading article. by Dutchmaan · · Score: 1

    Tell us more about the "mainstream media"...

  11. Re:Misleading article. by stoborrobots · · Score: 1

    Assuming that any of what you said was true, how would anti-Russian propaganda which does not mention your president hurt your president?

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    "Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco