Two Teens Hack Instagram
Posted by: Timothy Weaver on 03/16/2016 10:24 AM
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Dutch police have arrested two teenagers, aged 18 and 19, for hacking hundreds of influential Instagram users and exploiting their tens of thousands of followers.
Police claim the hackers then earned tens of thousands of euros by exploiting their access to these accounts to peddle advertising opportunities to legitimate companies - promising to send out Instagram posts promoting their products.
The Dutch Broadcasting Foundation (NOS), Holland's largest news organization says the suspects conned their victims by sending fake emails supposedly from Instagram which directed them to a lookalike site where they captured their passwords.
These companies probably did not realize that they were dealing with hackers," said a Dutch police spokesperson. "They made decent amounts that were diverted and converted into bitcoins." NOS confirmed suspects made tens of thousands of euros.
The hack reveals the need for two factor log in since it was not activated, making the hackers job much easier. Security expert Drew Perry, chief cyber analyst with the Ascot Barclay Cyber Security Group, said 2FA for Instagram “is well overdue”.
An Instagram spokesperson confirmed via email: “We began rolling out two-factor authentication to the Instagram community earlier this year. 2FA is an optional feature that adds a second step to the typical login process — after entering a password, you have to provide an SMS code that has been sent to your phone (something potential hackers would not have access to).”
Source: SCMagazine
Police claim the hackers then earned tens of thousands of euros by exploiting their access to these accounts to peddle advertising opportunities to legitimate companies - promising to send out Instagram posts promoting their products.
The Dutch Broadcasting Foundation (NOS), Holland's largest news organization says the suspects conned their victims by sending fake emails supposedly from Instagram which directed them to a lookalike site where they captured their passwords.
These companies probably did not realize that they were dealing with hackers," said a Dutch police spokesperson. "They made decent amounts that were diverted and converted into bitcoins." NOS confirmed suspects made tens of thousands of euros.
The hack reveals the need for two factor log in since it was not activated, making the hackers job much easier. Security expert Drew Perry, chief cyber analyst with the Ascot Barclay Cyber Security Group, said 2FA for Instagram “is well overdue”.
An Instagram spokesperson confirmed via email: “We began rolling out two-factor authentication to the Instagram community earlier this year. 2FA is an optional feature that adds a second step to the typical login process — after entering a password, you have to provide an SMS code that has been sent to your phone (something potential hackers would not have access to).”
Source: SCMagazine
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