While the app is a big way for individuals and little businesses to share photos, videos and plug in with followers, it ’ mho increasingly being targeted by hackers .
“ The hackers got into my report and they changed my e-mail, and they changed my password so I couldn ’ thymine get back in, ” said Siva Swaminathan of Toronto, a chef who uses Instagram for her little commercial enterprise providing healthy recipes .
Swaminathan said that she has been using the platform for the past seven years and has 2,500 followers, but recently she was hacked and locked out her history.
Swaminathan was told by the scammers if she wanted her bill back she would have to pay them money .
“ They held me for ransom. ampere soon as they did it they sent me a notice on WhatsApp saying ‘ we have your account give me money, ’ ” said Swaminathan .
Arianna Hatzis of Burlington uses her Instagram bill for personal reasons and she was precisely hacked losing cute family photos and videos .
” We rely therefore a lot on sociable media and when you have your bill hacked there is actually not much that you can do about it, ” said Hatzis .
Hatzis said scammers sent messages to her contacts promoting cryptocurrencies.
Read more: Student Resources – Western Nevada College
” I started getting messages from all my friends with screen shots saying your explanation has been hacked and certain enough it was, ” said Hatzis .
Instagram said it ‘s aware hackers are gaining access to accounts largely b
Sam Andrey is the Acting Executive Director of the Leadership Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University and said the best manner to protect yourself is to use hard passwords unique to the platform, two-factor authentication and never respond to messages that appear to be sent from Instagram .
“ Especially through target message on Instagram where basically people are tricked into providing information, ” said Andrey. “ Meta or Facebook will never message you in your send messages asking for information that is not something that happens. ”
CTV News reached out to Instagram and a spokesperson said, “ we have sophisticated measures in place to stop bad actors in their tracks before they gain access to accounts, a well as measures to help people recover their accounts. We know we can do more here, and we ‘re working arduous in both of these areas to stop bad actors before they cause damage, and to keep our community safe. ”
With help from Instagram, Hatzis was able to recover her account, but Swaminathan said she had to start all over creating a new Instagram report from scrape .
Since Instagram is free to use it ‘s hard to get through and get help when you need it. If your bill is hacked you should still contact the platform and warn your friends and class your bill has been compromised .
