There have been several victims of this attack, and they all claim to have received the same message from an attacker named “Pumpam”. The message lets the victim know that the hackers have possession of the account, and to email a particular address in order to start the recovery. It also mentions that the account will be deleted within 3 hours if there is no response.

Victims of the attack found that they could not recover the account through Instagram, as the account’s email address had been changed. This frustration and desperation to get possession of their accounts lead some users to pay the ransom. However, this wasn’t always successful, with some victims claiming that their account was still deleted.

Many of the victims feel let down by Instagram after they didn’t play an active role in helping them gain control of their accounts. Victims felt frustrated dealing with Instagram’s customer support when they only received generic responses to the issue, however this changed when vice’s tech arm Motherboard contacted Instagram about the issue and helped the users get possession back.

At present few details are known about the hacking campaign, including the hacker’s identities and where they are from. We urge Instagram users to be vigilant about their account security, make sure you have a secure password, that you back up your content in the event it is deleted, and don’t click on any nefarious looking links.

Photo by Katka Pavlickova on Unsplash

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They’re also busy sowing chaos on Instagram as well resulting in thousands of users being forced to say goodbye to their Instagram accounts and their hundreds of respective followers. For some unknown reason, these Instagram accounts are being hijacked by Russian hackers rendering them inaccessible.

This problem has apparently been going on for weeks.

Because regaining access to accounts is largely automatic, albeit a torturous one, the issue has gone unreported for some time. That is until it trended on Twitter where Instagram users have voiced their frustrations. Instagram mainly sends automatic messages to users on how to regain access to their accounts as well as some tips to help the users secure their accounts.

Though Instagram, which has more than 1 billion users, says it hasn’t seen an uptick in hacks, a search of Twitter data suggests otherwise. Twitters users have directed approximately 798 tweets to Instagram’s official account with the word ‘hack’ since the beginning of the month, compared with about 40 tweets during the same period in July… There are numerous reports of hacks on Reddit, and a Google Trends search shows a spike in searches for “Instagram hacked” on Aug. 8, and again on Aug. 11.

–Mashable

We are aware that some people are having difficulty accessing their Instagram accounts. If you think you have been impacted, please follow our guidance to regain access: https://t.co/DfHpQuk9SJ

— Instagram (@instagram) August 15, 2018

–Instagram, Twitter

Thousands of users report that they suddenly found themselves unable to access their accounts. When they try to access, they find that their registered emails have been changed to something with a .ru domain. Users profile pictures have also been replaced with stills from popular Disney/Pixar films as well as their phone numbers and short bios. The .ru domain mostly points to Russian involvement though given the benefit of a doubt, people can easily register to a Russian email service.

What’s common about the hack is that the accounts involved may not have had enough security, weak passwords and the lack of two-factor authentication. But two-factor authentication is also not a guarantee that accounts will not be hacked as there were victims that also use the security feature which is quite unnerving, as the feature though tedious, guarantees a high level of security.

Users have been voicing their frustrations over Twitter and other social media avenues on how Instagram has failed to support them. Frustrated users have threatened to say “doh sveedahneeyah” to the platform, while many are anxious to leave as Instagram has become their social media avenue in terms of additional exposure for business. Many of these accounts have hundreds if not thousands of followers these users depend on. Some have put up replacement accounts until Instagram gets their act together.

Security experts speculate that the hacked accounts not recovered will be used as spam bots and that the contents will become a measure of proof that they’re valid. Users mostly see the hacks as a danger to their privacy; or in terms of social media, selective exposure. By now, the best option for Instagram users is to immediately switch to a new, more secure password, enable two-factor authentication and to post pre-emptive warnings and maybe even set up a backup account.

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