Let’s explain to you what happened and how to act in the face of the alleged leak of Instagram data. There is a lot of confusion with the two versions why phishing emails are arriving to make you change your password and steal your account, and we are going to explain everything to you in a simple and understandable way.
Let’s start with the explanation of these two versions so you can see what seems to have happened. And then we are going to give you solutions for both, first telling you how to act if you receive an email asking you to reset your password, and then how to know if the alleged leak has affected you.
What happened on Instagram
The alarms have gone off when a large number of users have begun to report on social networks that they are receiving suspicious emails that encourage them to reset their Instagram password. These emails provide a link with which to try to steal your account.
On the one hand, the cybersecurity company Malwarebytes assures that a group of cybercriminals has Information stolen from 17.5 million accounts from Instagram. From each leaked account they claim to have obtained usernames, physical addresses, email names or phone numbers.
Instagram says no, that no one has hacked them, but admits that it has solved a problem that allowed third parties to request password reset emails for some users. They say that user data was not stolen, these emails were simply sent using this vulnerability.
There are two important questions here. First of all, if you receive these emails they may be trying to steal your account, and you must pay attention to avoid falling into the trap. Phishing campaigns are recurring, but if the problem was only what Instagram says, the number of these emails should start to reduce now.
The danger is if Instagram tries to hide that Malwarebytes is right. In this case, the first danger is that you may continue to receive attempts to steal your account, something that is always dangerous. But the most serious thing is that they say that physical addresses have been included in the leak, and that the data is being sold on the black market, something that can be dangerous for known people.
What to do if you receive one of the emails
In the event that you have received one of these emails in which you are told that Instagram has received a request to reset your password and that you click on the link to proceed, you should always ignore the message. Never click on any link that reaches you in this type of email.
If you want to change your Instagram password just in casethen you have to enter your account settings in the application or website of this social network. Once inside, Click on the section Account Center to enter the page where you manage all the service accounts belonging to Meta.
Inside here, choose your Instagram account, although it is normal that you arrive having it already selected. So, click on the section Password and security of the section Account Setup.
Once you are inside Password and securitythen you just have to click on the option Change password that will appear first, and follow the steps requested. You should try to change the password only from here.
How to know if the leak has affected you
If you want to clear your doubts and know if you are involved in the alleged leak, then the best thing is to go to the website. haveibeenpwned.comwhere all leaks are always collected. Using it is easy, you just have to write the email you use in your account from Instagram.
When you do, the page will tell you if your email has appeared in a leak, and You can see if Instagram is among them. It is possible that your email has been included in one or more leaks, although it does not have to have been the one from Instagram.
In the event that you appear in the leakthen what I always recommend is to change your password with the steps that we have told you before. The same with any other leak that appears, it is best to always change the password on the official website or app of that service.
In Xataka Basics | My data has been leaked, now what: the steps you should take whenever there is a massive leak on the Internet that could affect you
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