How do I know if I've been hacked on Instagram? It has turned out to be a necessary question that we do not always ask ourselves. No one today is exempt from this reality, there are more and more forced incursions into digital media. Today I will give you some tips that may indicate that your account was hacked.
Hacking is commonly done with the intent to remove access to your account, steal information, sell your content or even use it for illegal purposes such as scams and identity theft.
Despite that there are various methods to protect accounts, a hacker with advanced knowledge, can gain access. In this note, we will clearly talk about how to know if I have been hacked on Instagram.
How to know if I have been hacked on Instagram through some tests
If you suspect that your Instagram account has been hacked, you should take action on it. But before that, I must tell you some of the tips that tell you how to know if I have been hacked on Instagram.
You do not have access to your account
This maybe is uone of the clearest signs that someone unauthorized has entered your Instagram account. To check this, I recommend that you enter your credentials again and do it slowly so that you can observe the characters you are entering.
If after carrying out several tests with your credentials and you cannot access, almost certainly, your account has been hacked.
In recent months, many platform crashes have occurred, so before going crazy for not being able to access, look for information about. Use other social networks or visit digital news to stay up to date and confirm the fall.
login notice
To increase your security, the Instagram platform has a module that will inform you via email that there was an unknown login. When this happens, in the mail you will receive the location, type of device and time in which the account was entered.
Currently, Instagram has other elements that before granting access, you must verify in the app from your mobileTherefore, these types of incidents are becoming less and less. Despite this, if you receive this type of notice without being the one entering it, follow the steps offered by the system.
Change of associated mail
When you create your Instagram account, among the factors that asks you as mandatory are: your phone number and your email address. These are the keys to access the platform normally.
When you receive an announcement that you are trying to change these credentials without having been you, surely you were the victim of a hacker. Fortunately, you can revoke access and change from the same announcement. Keep in mind that the email that does this is security@mail.instagram.com. In case someone else appears, you may be a victim of phishing.
Strange activity
Many times, the attacker does not immediately change your access, but a clear sign is the strange activity of your account. You should keep your eyes peeled for strange comments, stories, posts or photos made from your account that you obviously didn't do.
Regularly, this type of activity it is done in another language and in many cases information is offered so that other users enter links or simply give their data. This is one of the least easy methods to detect, so it's important that your followers can let you know if they've seen anything out of the ordinary.
Chats not opened by you
If you see that there are private messages that were not created by you, possibly you have been the victim of a hack to your Instagram account. They do this regularly to scam your contacts through identity theft.
You should keep in mind that the attacker could delete your conversations so that it seems that everything is normal, but you will have an option to recover deleted messages.
What to do if my Instagram account was actually hacked
As a result of the large number of attacks suffered by the social network, its technical team has focused on maximizing security before and after a cyber attack event on your accounts. One of the easiest and most direct methods to get help is by using the following link.
In this, you must fill out a form that it will ask what is the problem to access your account. The options range from forgetting your password to hacking, so the problem will be dealt with directly by the Instagram support team.
From this moment on, you will have direct contact with the team and will offer you tools to change your password. At the end of the procedure, the session will be closed on all devices, including the cyber attacker's.
It is important that, at the end of the process, inform the team that assisted you to close the process. After that, take control of your account again and increase security.
Method to increase the security of Instagram
In virtually all apps that use our data and can be hacked, there is a vital element called two step verification. This allows you to receive codes or links to confirm that it is really us who is trying to access the account.
In the particular case of Instagram, two-step verification occurs by sending a numerical code via SMS. The steps you must follow to activate this security method are the following:
- Access the Instagram app as usual. This process can also be done from the web browser in a very similar way, but today we will focus on the mobile version.
- Click on your profile photo, in the lower right corner.
- Once you are inside your profile, you must click on the three parallel horizontal lines, you will find them in the upper right corner.
- When new options are displayed, as the first one, “Settings and privacy”, being this where we will enter.
- Within the new options, you will find “Account center”, here you can configure and change the login and security items.
- Then go to “Password and security".
- Finally, you must click on “Two-step authentication".
- Once here, if you have multiple accounts, choose the one you want to apply the changes to. Choose the authentication method and save the changes.
As you can see, it is very easy to improve the security of your account, which will prevent you from having bad times. I hope I have answered the question of how to know if I have been hacked on Instagram and thus take the necessary measures to correct it.
