Social Media
Comments Off on New Instagram Security Fail Impacts Millions: Are You Safe?
Instagram recently discovered millions of user passwords were being stored in plain text
At KnowEm we take security very seriously. When one uses our social media registration services, we have certain criteria for the passwords to be used for registration. These criteria exist so that we can ensure the accounts created will be secured and accessible only by yourself or your team members that you choose to grant access.
Over the last 10 years, we’ve refined our guidelines and continue to evaluate them to make sure that your information is safe. Sometimes your security is left in the hands of companies that inadvertently expose some of the data that they have been trusted with securing.
In a March blog post Facebook disclosed that tens of thousands of passwords to Facebook accounts had been stored in plain text. This was discovered earlier in January. As a result, on April 18th, 2019, Facebook quietly updated the previously published blog post. They subsequently revealed that in addition to the known visible data, millions more Instagram user accounts than expected were implicated.
Facebook Update to the Report:
(Update on April 18, 2019 at 7AM PT: Since this post was published, we discovered additional logs of Instagram passwords being stored in a readable format. We now estimate that this issue impacted millions of Instagram users. We will be notifying these users as we did the others. Our investigation has determined that these stored passwords were not internally abused or improperly accessed).
Facebook has said it will notify all users whose passwords were visible and instruct them to change their passwords. We do not recommend waiting for a message from Facebook to update your passwords. If you have an account on Instagram is it recommended that you change it immediately. This will minimize the chance of someone maliciously accessing your account.
Whenever an incident like this occurs, it is strongly encouraged that you consider changing your passwords. Try not to recycle passwords, it is highly possible they have been discovered in previous data breaches which seem to happen often. Therefore, an additional step that is recommended is to enable 2 factor authentication or 2 step verification whenever possible.
What You Can Do Next: Security Resources
We’ve compiled multiple resources to assist you with securing your accounts. The most recognizable social media and service platforms are often the first attacked:
We’ll continue to monitor this situation and update you as more information becomes available.
facebook, facebook hacked, Instagram, Security, social networks
