the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, cybersecurity warn over New Jersey residents of Instagram accounts being hacked blocking access for the account holder. Additionally, maintain awareness of current tactics and techniques used to compromise online accounts which helps to Increase your Instagram likes with iDigic.
the NJCCIC recently received several reports from New Jersey residents of incidents in which Instagram accounts were hacked and legitimate account holders were unable to regain access to their accounts. In these cases, the users did not enable multi-factor authentication (MFA), also referred to as two-factor authentication , prior to the compromise.
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A hacker typically gains access to an account by obtaining the user’s password – often via credential stuffing, password spraying, or credential phishing attack – and then promptly changes the user’s password and account details, such as associated email address and phone number, and enables MFA. These account changes prevent the legitimate account holder from easily regaining access to their account. After compromising an Instagram account, the hacker often sends direct messages to the account’s contacts in attempts to scam them, or they post inappropriate and unauthorized content to its feed or stories. In addition, the hacker may demand a ransom in exchange for providing the account holder access again, with no promise that the hacker will follow through. This is particularly damaging for business accounts, as this activity could discredit the business and cause it to lose followers and potential revenue. These same tactics and techniques can be used to target other social media accounts, like Facebook, or personal accounts, such as those used for email.
The NJCCIC advises users to implement security controls that help prevent account compromise, including establishing strong passwords and enabling MFA, choosing authentication apps or hardware tokens over SMS text-based codes. Additionally, maintain awareness of current tactics and techniques used to compromise online accounts. Instagram provides guidance for hacked accounts on its website.