38
"Hacked" Instagram (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Quicky@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

My other half discovered that some dodgy person/company had managed to send instagram messages advertising handbags to all of her followers from her account. She changed her password immediately, but what could have happened here? Is it the case that a “hacker” had access to her full instagram account, or would they have used some tool that allows posting of messages via some kind of proxy without requiring access to her actual account? There was no record of other logged in devices on the security page of her account.

Update: She’s just been through her junk email folder and found a “We’ve noticed a new login” email from instagram yesterday, so I presume that means they were fully in to the account then. How they got the password is anyone’s guess, but could be any of the suggestions below. Thanks all for the responses.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] IHawkMike@lemmy.world 36 points 1 month ago

Most likely it was a password stuffing attack. If they used the same password on multiple sites, there is a good chance one of those other sites was compromised and the attackers took the compromised credentials and tried them on other sites like Instagram. It could have been something more advanced like a stolen cookie, but usually the simplest explanation is most likely.

Always use a different password for each service, enable MFA where possible, and use a password vault like Bitwarden.

[-] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

yup, all mine are generated by bitwarden and look like this

^!i!MS11Ot4mTT

no reason to ever remember that. and with 2fa, good luck.

[-] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago

Huh, that's a weird way to spell *******

this post was submitted on 17 May 2024
38 points (95.2% liked)

No Stupid Questions

34292 readers
2182 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS