My other half discovered that some dodgy person/company had managed to send instagram messages advertising handbags to all of her followers from her account. She changed her password immediately, but what could have happened here? Is it the case that a “hacker” had access to her full instagram account, or would they have used some tool that allows posting of messages via some kind of proxy without requiring access to her actual account? There was no record of other logged in devices on the security page of her account.
Update: She’s just been through her junk email folder and found a “We’ve noticed a new login” email from instagram yesterday, so I presume that means they were fully in to the account then. How they got the password is anyone’s guess, but could be any of the suggestions below. Thanks all for the responses.
Most likely it was a password stuffing attack. If they used the same password on multiple sites, there is a good chance one of those other sites was compromised and the attackers took the compromised credentials and tried them on other sites like Instagram. It could have been something more advanced like a stolen cookie, but usually the simplest explanation is most likely.
Always use a different password for each service, enable MFA where possible, and use a password vault like Bitwarden.
yup, all mine are generated by bitwarden and look like this
^!i!MS11Ot4mTT
no reason to ever remember that. and with 2fa, good luck.
Her account was likely compromised. It wouldn’t be possible to say how without more info. Could have been that her password was hacked (guessed), or could have been that her session was cookie hijacked where they wouldn’t have had to exploit the password.
I don’t know if IG has 2 factor authentication, but that could be something to look into. Also ensure the new password is not dictionary based. Use a password manager like bitwarden.
first of all i dont use instagram so i cannot guarantee what i have said. however i do have a fair bit of roblox experience and account stealing kinda happens all the time there.
the website sent out could steal session details. most sites have a “remember me” feature so that you dont have to login every time you visit it. the server does this by giving your computer a unique identifier after you log in, so now that identifier can be used instead of a username and password. the website could steal that identifier and thus impersonate you, without getting your username and password.
after doing this basically anything could happen, but most likely the account will be controlled by a bot to spread the ad further, eventually amassing some sort of botnet.
in theory stopping the bot from accessing your account could be as simple as logging out of all devices the moment you fall for it, but im not too sure what would happen if you do it any later than that.
i dont think a proxy actually exists. to pretend to be someone else you either make an account that has similar characteristics as the target or just steal the target’s account directly. is it literally every one of the followers that are targeted, 100%, or is it just most of them? it could be some sort of website like what i said spreading through the network of followers.
