Instagram Hacked: Users Mysteriously Lose Access To Their Accounts

It appears as though hundreds of people have had their Instagram accounts hacked by unknown attackers. What’s worse is that the hackers are logging users out of their own Instagram accounts and changing their personal details.

This mysterious hijacking of Instagram accounts was first reported by Mashable. The site has already managed to talk to half a dozen users who also fell victim to the same type of hack. Users are reporting on Twitter and on Reddit that they would suddenly be logged out of their Instagram accounts and were unable to log in with their credentials. The victims would then discover that their linked personal data, like email addresses and phone numbers, have been changed, making it impossible to log in to their Instagram accounts ever again.

What’s alarming about this hack is that no one knows exactly how the attackers are able to pull this off. In most cases, victims of this Instagram hack didn’t have two-factor authentication enabled on their accounts when the attack occurred. However, having two-factor authentication won’t guarantee that users will be safe from this sort of hack. A user named Chris Woznicki told Mashable that his Instagram account was hacked even though two-factor authentication was enabled.

Woznicki did receive security emails from Instagram informing him that his linked email address to his account had been changed. However, by the time he saw the emails, his account was already being controlled by the unknown attacker. Mashable believes that there are already hundreds affected by the same type of Instagram hack.

Mashable says that these attacks have been happening since the beginning of August. When the hackers take control of a user’s Instagram account, they will change the handle and the profile picture of the account. The new profile pictures are often animated characters from Disney or Pixar. The hacked accounts will also have a new .ru email address, which is a Russian domain, as pointed out by CNET.

The hackers who have initiated these attacks don’t appear to be posting any photos or videos. The hackers are also not removing users’ old posts. The only things that they are changing are the profile picture, the handle and the linked email address. Unfortunately, changing all of those will effectively lockout users from their own accounts.

Instagram hasn’t directly addressed the issue yet, but it did provide a statement regarding how it handles this type of problem.

“We work hard to provide the Instagram community with a safe and secure experience,” an Instagram spokesperson said in a statement. “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.”

So far, victims of this sort of hacking have flocked to Twitter to express their frustrations on how slow Instagram has been handling the current situation.