Being hacked has long been a risk for any Instagram account, and such risk is on the significant rise this year, causing concerns. According to the data presented by the Atlas VPN team, Instagram users suffered the most from account takeover in 2021. A total of 84% social media account takeover victims reported that their Instagram accounts were hijacked by scammers. Instagram has now made efforts to improve the situation. On December 15, 2022, Instagram released a series of new features to strengthen its platform security.
Instagram has introduced new security features that can further secure users’ accounts in more ways than one. First, users can report and restore their hacked accounts through the newly launched Instagram.com/hacked page. In addition to the reporting service for hacked accounts, this platform also provides the option to restore accounts where users have forgotten their passwords, have no access to two-factor authentication, or the accounts are disabled.
In the meantime, Instagram has expanded access to its friends confirmation feature for restoring accounts. This had been tested since earlier this year and is now available for all users. It allows people to choose two friends on their account to verify their identity when their account is locked, in order to restore normal account log in.
Moreover, Instagram has also strengthened prevention mechanisms, including the removal of malicious/impersonation accounts and generation of DM (direct message) warnings based on an automated system. The platform has also added blue verified icons in more places across the platform to help users better distinguish the authenticity of accounts.
Prior to the release of the new features, Instagram’s primary method of protecting accounts was to ensure that users set strong enough passwords and by supporting two-factor authentication when setting passwords. Users could also check their account information and improve their account security at any time by completing Instagram’s Security Check-Up.
In an article posted on Meta’s official site, senior cybersecurity staff suggested hackers might now focus their attention on smaller platforms. “As larger tech platforms continue to catch these operations sooner, we expect threat actors to keep targeting smaller, less-resourced services. Information-sharing among researchers, industry and government will be all the more critical to help expose these networks,” said Guy Rosen, Chief Information Security Officer and Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Security Policy of Meta.
While the introduction of the new security features indicates Instagram is proactively tackling platform security, time will tell whether these measures are effective.