Instagram is working to make its apps harder to hack and an easy in-app process to recover accounts in case they are hijacked, Vice reports.
Currently, Instagram sends users to email or a support form is required to be filled. With the new process, it will ask users info about either their email ID or phone number, where a six digit code will be sent. These codes will then be used to identify whether an original user is logging in or a hacker is trying from a different device.
Through these changes, a user will be able to recover his or her account even when the username and contact data are changed after hacking. Back in March, reverse engineering excerpt Jane Manchun Wong disclosed that "Instagram will start locking old usernames for 14 days after changing so the previous owner can revert to it within the grace period", now Instagram also confirmed that users cannot revert back to their names after a specific time period if they change a username, either its changes by the user itself or by a hacker.
In-app recovery is not available to all users yet, though Android users can avail the username lockdown. iOS users still have to wait for a little.
The main purpose of this new recovery process is to ensure that users can recover their accounts themselves instead of depending upon the security team (which usually takes a lot of time to solve users issue).
This step was taken following the increasing number of intrusions and other password exposing controversies. This might not completely stop the hijacking but attackers will not be able to take advantage of vulnerabilities of the platform.
Read next: Instagram’s Nasty List is Being Used by Hackers to Steal Passwords
Currently, Instagram sends users to email or a support form is required to be filled. With the new process, it will ask users info about either their email ID or phone number, where a six digit code will be sent. These codes will then be used to identify whether an original user is logging in or a hacker is trying from a different device.
Through these changes, a user will be able to recover his or her account even when the username and contact data are changed after hacking. Back in March, reverse engineering excerpt Jane Manchun Wong disclosed that "Instagram will start locking old usernames for 14 days after changing so the previous owner can revert to it within the grace period", now Instagram also confirmed that users cannot revert back to their names after a specific time period if they change a username, either its changes by the user itself or by a hacker.
In-app recovery is not available to all users yet, though Android users can avail the username lockdown. iOS users still have to wait for a little.
The main purpose of this new recovery process is to ensure that users can recover their accounts themselves instead of depending upon the security team (which usually takes a lot of time to solve users issue).
This step was taken following the increasing number of intrusions and other password exposing controversies. This might not completely stop the hijacking but attackers will not be able to take advantage of vulnerabilities of the platform.
Read next: Instagram’s Nasty List is Being Used by Hackers to Steal Passwords
