Instagram is rolling out a whole new process for users who lost their accounts to hackers. Back in 2018, Motherboard reported that hackers were targeting Influencers on Instagram by gaining access to their accounts and holding them ransom in exchange for bitcoins. Before these attacks happened on Instagram Influencers, hackers gained access to 6 million Instagram accounts and their credentials in 2017. Needless to say, the company needs to take some silid steps to help those affected by these malicious hacks. To address the problem, Instagram is now reportedly changing the way hacked accounts can be recovered by their original users.
"We know that losing access to your account can be a distressing experience. We have measures in place to stop accounts from being hacked in the first place, as well as measures to help people recover their accounts. But we heard from the community that these measures aren't enough, and people are struggling to regain access to their accounts," an Instagram spokesperson told Vice in an emailed statement.
Here’s how you can recover your hacked Instagram account using the new recovery method
It so happens sometimes that hackers also gain access to the email address or phone number a users. To address this issue, Instagram says that it will take additional measures to ensure hackers cannot access the code sent to your email address or phone number from a different device. The platform also has another security feature which will ensure a username is safe for a period of time after any account change so it cannot be claimed by someone else. This feature is available on Android and will come soon to iOS.