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Instagram hack: Hundreds of accounts taken over in mysterious Russian attack

'My account has been hacked! Username, email and password has been changed. Now someone called Laitus Maria has all my pics,' one Instagram user complained

Anthony Cuthbertson

Wednesday 15 August 2018 12:05 BST

A hacking campaign using Russian email addresses has locked hundreds of people out of their Instagram accounts (REUTERS)

A widespread hacking campaign that appears to stem from Russia is affecting hundreds of Instagram users, leaving people locked out of their accounts.

The hack sees Instagram account names, profile pictures, passwords and email addresses associated with accounts changed by the attackers, with the new email addresses originating from a Russian email provider.

Many of the affected accounts have had their profile pictures replaced with stills from popular films, including Pirates of the Caribbean and Despicable Me 3.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Show all 11

1/1111 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Hide and reorder filters

Filters are a core part of Instagram, but there are so many available it can be easy to get lost. You can change the order in which they appear, and even hide the ones you never use, to speed up your photo-sharing process. On the filters page, scroll to the end, tap Manage, then drag and drop the ones you want to reorder, and un-check the ones you want to hide.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Never miss a post

Instagram controversially ditched its reverse-chronological order feed for a new order determined by an algorithm, making it easy to completely miss some posts. To make sure you never miss a certain somebody’s updates, you can set up notification for them by visiting their profile, tapping the three dots in the top right-hand corner and selecting Turn On Post Notifications.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Eat less data

If you’re worried about how much of your mobile data Instagram saps, you can limit it by sacrificing the speed at which the photos and videos in your feed load. Go to your profile, tap the three dots in the top right corner, open Cellular Data Use and choose Use Less Data.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

See your Likes

It’s easy to lose track of your friends’ old posts on Instagram, but if you know you Liked it, you’ll be able to track it down easily. Just go to your profile, hit the three dots at the top and select Posts You’ve Liked. You can also save posts in a folder only you can see by tapping the bookmark icon underneath it. Take a look at everything you’ve bookmarked by tapping the same icon that sits near the top of your profile.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Find relevant hashtags

Everyone knows you can expand the reach of your posts by using a number of relevant hashtags, but what those are aren’t always glaringly obvious. You can easily find the right ones for you by typing a keyword into Instagram’s search bar, selecting a hashtag from the list and swiping along the Related row that appears at the top of the screen.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Clear your search history

Whatever your reasons are, you can clear your recent searches by going to your profile, hitting the three dots in the top right and selecting Clear Search History. To go a step further and hide your Suggested searches too, go to the search page, tap and hold the account you want to hide, and choose Hide from the pop-up window.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Hide photos you’re tagged in

Tagged photos on Instagram aren’t as prominent as they are on Facebook, but anyone can still browse through other people’s pictures of you by visiting your profile and tapping the photo of you icon. If you’re tagged in a picture you don’t want other people to see, go to your profile, hit the photos of you icon, tap the three dots at the top of the screen and choose Hide Photos.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Secure your account

Make your Instagram account much harder to hack by enabling two-factor authentication, a security feature that protects you even if your login details are stolen. Go to your profile, tap the three dots, open Two-Factor Authentication and toggle it on.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Share lots at once

If you want to upload a bunch of related pictures and videos without flooding everyone else’s feed, you can shared them all as one post. Hit the + icon, select Gallery, choose Select Multiple, pick out up to 10 of the pictures and clips you want, tap Next and reorder them by dragging and dropping.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Record hands-free

Instagram Stories has been a massive hit since it came out last year, but you might not know that you can record Stories clips without having to hold one of your digits on the record key. On the Stores screen, just swipe through the options at the bottom until you get to Hands-Free.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Edit posts after publishing

Most people know you can delete any of the images you’ve already posted, but not everyone is aware that you can also edit them. Instagram unfortunately doesn’t let you tinker with filters and effects, but you can change your original caption, tag people and update the location.

A spokesperson for Instagram was not immediately available for comment but the company tweeted an acknowledgement of the issue on Wednesday, 15 August.

"We are aware that some people are having difficulty accessing their Instagram accounts," the company tweeted. "If you think you have been impacted, please follow our guidance to regain access."

The Facebook-owned firm's official guidance for regaining access to a hacked account claim that Instagram users will be notified of any change of email address to their account via an email to the original address.

"Please click the link marked 'revert this change' in the email, and then change your password," the guidelines state. "We advise you pick a strong password. Use a combination of at least six numbers, letters and punctuation marks... It should be different from other passwords used elsewhere on the internet."

One Instagram user took to Twitter to complain about the security process, which they claimed was unable to restore their account.

"I'm concerned because my account has been taken over by the hacker – but I did not receive any email from Instagram whatsoever when my email was changed," one Twitter user wrote to Instagram.

"Can you help? Your guides are not helping me so far, but I'm glad you are aware of the problem."

Some security experts have speculated that the hacked accounts could be used as spam bots, with privacy advocate Paul Bischoff telling Threatpost: "Even if some victims regain control of their accounts, many of those affected have likely quit the platform or just won't go through the trouble, adding soldiers to the spambot army."

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