Hundreds of Instagram users report falling prey to similar account hack

Screenshot from Chris Woznicki, one of the victims of this new Instagram hack

A bizarre hack seems to be hitting Instagram users this month with users getting logged out and their personal details changed. The users discover their accounts being signed out, their handles and profile photos changed (often to a Disney or Pixar character), bios deleted, and the accounts are now linked to an .ru email address (a Russian domain). Most of the people Mashable talked to did not have two-factor authentication turned on, but one said he had it enabled but it was disabled and his account was still hacked. Aside from changing personal information, the hackers don’t seem to be posting or removing any photos from the accounts. No one seems to be claiming the hack just yet.

The difficulty for those hacked though is that it’s more difficult to get back into their accounts with the changed personal details. And it seems Instagram’s largely automated process of trying to get back into the accounts prove to be inadequate. Abagail Nowak, one of the victims of the hack describes it as a “maze.” She says, “The maze that Instagram sends you on to get your account back is laughable and leads to broken/dead links and emails from robots which lead nowhere.” Instagram hasn’t responded to requests for comments on the hack but we’ll report back when we hear more.

Source: CNET

Go incognito on Instagram by turning this feature off

Want to hide the fact that you’re online on Instagram? You might not have noticed this but Instagram has an Activity Status feature that shows if you’re online. If you’d rather not broadcast to your followers that you’re on the social network, you can easily turn that off. Just head to Settings and then scroll to the Privacy and Security section, and then pick Activity Status menu. There you can toggle the off button for Show Activity Status. Once you do this, the green dot beside your icon will disappear. One thing you need to note though is you won’t be able to see who is active either.

Source: Lifehacker

Instagram introduces ‘Question Sticker’ to Stories

Instagram’s latest addition to its ephemeral Stories feature is a new sticker. The Question Sticker will help you interact with your friends and followers easily. This joins the existing polling sticker and emoji slider and is accessible through the stickers section of Stories. Type out your question and just like any other sticker you can place this anywhere in your story. When your friends or followers want to answer, they just tap the sticker to reply and answer as many times as they want. You’ll see all the responses in your viewers list and you even have the option to share their answers. But when you share their responses, their username and photo won’t be visible. Question Sticker is rolling out to both the iOS and Android apps.

Instagram tests out persistent Stories bar

If this test becomes a full-fledged feature, you won’t be able to escape Instagram Stories then. The Verge’s Chris Welch noticed on his Pixel 2 XL a change to Instagram’s user interface. While he was scrolling through his main feed, he noticed the Stories bar stayed at the top of the page. When they reached out to Instagram about this, they got the boilerplate response, “We’re always testing ways to improve the experience on Instagram and make it easier to share any moment with the people who matter to you.” If you like checking Stories all the time, this new feature might be up your alley.

Source: The Verge