Earlier this month, an Instagram hack hit millions of accounts. This got me thinking — Have I taken the necessary precaution to protect my social media assets, and more importantly, to protect myself?
Two years ago, someone hacked my Instagram account @rourourobin. The hacker wrote nasty comments on other Influencers’ and my most loyal fans’ public profiles. Within 6 hours, I lost over 5,000 followers, and got blocked by numerous accounts affected by the hacker’s nasty comments. My online community noticed that something was wrong, and reported the issue to Instagram. Because of my online community, I was able to regain my Instagram account quickly. Through this experience I realized I need to take the time to learn how to protect myself online and also learned the power of cultivating a supportive online community.
How did the hacker get into my account? Why would a hacker want my account? After some research, I learned that hackers can easily hack into an account with a weak password or without 2-factor authentication within minutes. The hacker may be motivated by monetary reasons. Having spent years building up my social media presence, I cringed when I saw an account with 100K+ followers resold for $3,000 online. The buyer can then change the Instagram handle name, delete all the images, and use the account with the existing following for themselves. All they needed was the hard earned following.
My hack further brought up heated discussions in my online community. Beyond Instagram, multiple social media Influencers have shared that hackers have gained unauthorized access to their computer’s webcam, and filmed them without them knowing. Influencers I know only realized they’ve been hacked when the hacker contacted them, each threatening the Influencers that they would post the unauthorized nude photos online. There were other instances where hackers found the location of an Influencer’s home using the geo-tag on an iPhone photo posted on Facebook.
Have you taken the minimum precautionary steps to protect yourself?
Here’s how to protect yourself online:
- Do not take and post photos online using your iPhone camera when you are at home or at locations you frequent because photos taken from your iPhone camera are geo-tagged. When I say geo-tag, I mean the GPS coordinates (longitude, latitude) of the picture’s exact location is embedded by the phone into the photo. Anyone who downloads your photo off the internet can find exactly where you were located at that time. If you do take photos at home, it’s best to use a professional DSLR camera because the images are not geo-tagged.
What’s nuts is when I see parents take photos of their children using an iPhone at home or at school, not realizing that anyone on the internet can find the location of their child after the photo has been posted. Protect yourself and your family by using a DSLR camera or use the right software tools to strip geo information from your images. - Turn on 2-factor authentication on all social platforms, and everything you can. I did not have it on my Instagram account which is partially why it was vulnerable. I have it on there now.
- Get a webcam cover as soon as possible because hackers can access your webcam without you knowing. This is the one I have for my Mac.
- Check your authorized applications on Instagram or any other social media platforms, and revoke access to any 3rd parties who have unauthorized access to your account.
I found that the best way to do this on Instagram is to login to your account on your desktop. Click on “Edit Profile” on the top right of your page.
Click on “Authorized Applications”.
Revoke access for any unauthorized applications.
5. Be vigilant when being asked to enter your password. One way a hacker will try to get access to your Instagram account is by obtaining sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by disguising as Instagram in an email (a.k.a. phishing). Instagram would never ask you to provide your password (outside of the app). Request for sensitive information on the Instagram website on your desktop or through an email may be disregarded.
Example of a fake email from a pretend instagram email address:
Example of a fake instagram login page:
I’ve received emails like these from phishers pretending to be Instagram and Twitter. Know that there are phishers on all kinds of platforms including banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America, so this is good to know in general.
6. Make sure your password is strong. Six character passwords are crackable in minutes! Key thing is to make sure your password is at least 10 characters in length. To strengthen your password further, consider including special characters (e.g. !@#$%^&), a mix of upper and lower case letters, and numbers.
7. Be careful if a website offers to upgrade your Flash, to download a cleaning software or toolbars, or to add a Chrome extension to improve the speed of your Mac or PC. All of these points are common sources of malware. Another source of malware are ads. Do install the ad block extension.
8. Avoid going to websites about piracy related to music, video, images, etc. Piracy-related websites have pop ups that lead to malware offers as listed in point 7.
9. Do not go to sketchy chat sites. Chat clients establish two way connections and hackers look to poorly engineered chat platforms for gathering information or planting malware on your computer.
10. It’s not uncommon to find that you’ve been impersonated by fake accounts using your photos on social media. This is different than a fan making a fan page with your pictures. The fake accounts I’m referring to are those made by someone pretending to be you, commonly known as a “catfish”. Best way to get a fake account taken down is by rallying your community to report the fake account to IG or FB. Multiple reports of the same fake account will further validate to Instagram and Facebook that the account is fake.
Having been hacked, I learned that having a strong community of online supporters is essential to protecting my social media profile. It was especially heart-warming to see the people in my online community volunteering their time to report to Instagram my hack, which allowed me to regain access to my account quickly. If you’re a social media Influencer and want the support of a community, join Influencers’ Alliance — the community of over 800 supportive Influencers on Facebook.
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