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Has your Instagram account ever been hacked or do you know someone who’s had that unfortunate experience? Now, regaining access to your account might be a whole lot easier with Instagram’s new feature.
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Following reports that users have been losing access of their valuable accounts to hackers, Motherboard reported that Instagram is currently testing new features that might make it easier for users to regain access to their hacked accounts.
These new measures will require users to follow a couple of steps to ensure that regaining access is not as tedious and stressful like it is now.
"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 said.
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Hackers will often lure their victims into allowing them access to their accounts by tricking them into clicking a phishing link. Once a user has clicked the link, the official-looking redirect will require users to enter their login credentials, which will then give the hackers full access.
Once the hacker has gained full access, the account’s associated email address and phone number will be immediately changed, which then makes it difficult for the user to regain access into their accounts.
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Instagram is currently rolling out a test that will require users who are locked out of their account to click the “Need more help” button and enter the email address or phone number linked to the account, or the one that was used upon signing up for an account.
The social media platform will then send an official six-digit code that will allow users to regain access to the hacked account.
“When you re-gain access to your account, we will take additional measures to ensure a hacker cannot use codes sent to your email address [or] phone number to access your account from a different device,” the spokesperson said.
This process will allow a user to get back into the hacked account, even if the hacker has changed the account’s username.
Image via The Verge
According to the spokesperson, another feature they’re working on will "ensure your username is safe for a period of time after any account changes, meaning it can't be claimed by someone else if you lose access to your account."
"With this feature, we give the account holder the security of knowing that their username will not be available to be claimed by someone else for a period of time following any changes," the spokesperson added.
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Currently, the feature is only available to Android users but will be available on iOS soon.
Do you think this new security feature will help lessen account hacks?
Info via The Verge