Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform Instagram is under attack as hackers steal personally identifiable information for thousands of accounts.
Representational Image.
According to a report on The Daily Beast the hackers, after stealing the data, launched a website and made a searchable database to provide the leaked information. The hackers were charging $10 per search to give access to the information from the hacked accounts. According to the report, the hackers also claim to have the access to six million Instagram accounts.
The report mentions that a sample of data shared by the hackers contains email addresses, phone numbers of famous politicians, sports stars and media companies. The hackers shared a list of 1,000 hacked accounts, the list also contain the details of many of the top 50 most-followed profiles on the Instagram.
The website launched by the hackers went offline on Friday, but there is no confirmation whether Instagram is responsible for the action.
Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger in a blog post said that the company has fixed a "bug" that "could be used to access some people's email address and phone number even if they are not public". According to the blog, the social media platform is not able to determine the accounts affected but believes that "it was a low percentage of Instagram accounts".
The company also asked users to follow steps to protect their information on the platform and said that it is "working with law enforcement on that matter".
Recently, private pictures of singer Justin Bieber were leaked from the Instagram account belonging to ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez. Her Instagram account was taken down soon after the leak.
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