A weird Instagram hack has locked hundreds of users out of their accounts by changing login details, and later usernames, profile images and associated email addresses. Some accounts were deleted, while others had their profile pictures changed to images from popular films, such as Despicable Me.
The issue has been addressed by Instagram, but many users report that they did not receive much help.
“We are aware that some people are having difficulty accessing their Instagram accounts,” the company tweeted, and offered guidance, which can be accessed here, for affected users. In addition to picking strong passwords and enabling two-factor authentication, the social networking service also advises users to carefully check which third-party apps have been granted access to accounts, and if necessary revoke that access. Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, third-party app access to accounts has been limited, but some users might still be handing over their account details to questionable apps.
According to guidelines explaining how to recover accounts, when an email address is changed for an Instagram account, the user is supposed to be notified about this via email to the original account. The notification email allows users to revert the change if it wasn’t made by them. However, several users have expressed dismay about Instagram’s security as they were not notified about changes in their accounts, thus were unable to revert them in time.
It is not yet known what the purpose of such a hack was, and whether accounts will be recovered.