Through the looking glass: More security is always welcomed although in reality, it's only going to marginally slow down dedicated hackers and make them come up with new attack vectors. Phishing and account theft will continue to be a problem and odds are, some Instagram victims will still turn to white-hat hackers for help when Instagram can't help them quickly enough.
Instagram is trialing new security techniques that could make it easier for users to regain access to accounts that have been hacked and harder for nefarious individuals to get their hands on accounts to begin with.
In an e-mailed statement to Motherboard, an Instagram spokesperson said they heard from the community that existing security measures aren't enough and that people are struggling to regain access to hacked accounts.
As Motherboard outlines, after repeatedly entering an incorrect password or clicking the "Need more help" option, Instagram will prompt you to enter the e-mail address or phone number linked to your account or the ones used when you signed up for Instagram.
The service will then send a six-digit code that'll allow you to regain access to your account.
What happens if the hacker also has access to your e-mail account and control of your phone number? "When you re-gain access to your account, we will take additional measures to ensure a hacker cannot use codes sent to your e-mail address [or] phone number to access your account from a different device."
Taking it a step further, the Instagram spokesperson said the company will ensure that usernames are safe "for a period of time after any account changes" as to thwart someone from taking ownership of it immediately after a hack. This feature is currently only available to Android users but is rolling out on iOS, we're told.
Image credit: Cathryn Virginia, Motherboard