Since early August, the reports from Instagram users who report strange hacker attacks on their accounts are piling up. The stored E-Mail addresses be replaced apparently after the hostile takeover. The attacks might come from Russia.Sound similar to the descriptions of the persons concerned: your Instagram account had been taken over by foreigners, the registered email address is been replaced here by a .ru address. The name, profile photo, and the telephone number in the profile had been changed. Disney or Pixar characters should be frequently used as a new photo. Some figures suggest that actually could be an issue.In the last seven days hundreds of users have reported according to an evaluation by Mashable on Twitter hacker attacks on Instagram accounts. Many asked there directly at Instagram for help. Since the beginning of the month the number of tweets that were directed at the social media company, and where the word “Hack” was has multiplied according to Mashable: from 40 in the first half of July, the number had increased to almost 800 in August. Also, Google on 8 and 11 August registered two spikes to the search term “Instagram hacked”. And on reddit , sufferers also report that their Instagram account has been hacked. Mashable spoke directly according to half a dozen victims. How to write the online portal, Instagram denies itself a rise of hacks in the period.
Parallels between the victims
The majority of those affected had deactivated the two factor authentication. Some reports indicate however, that even this was cracked by the alleged hackers. As soon as the E-Mail address that is stored in the profile has been replaced by an attacker, it is often very difficult to gain access to your account for the affected user. Then, you are even dependent on the support of Instagram. This can take days sometimes. Most victims of possible hack series have accounts with a three-to four-digit number of followers.
