Instagram warning after hackers ‘access personal information using only username’

Hackers have been able to obtain Instagram users’ personal details using only someone’s username, cybersecurity experts say.

Days after it was revealed that a loophole allowed attackers to access other people’s Instagram accounts using Meta’s AI chatbot, cybersecurity experts believe they have found another privacy leak.

The newsletter International Cyber Digest has claimed you can use Instagram’s account recovery function to gain authenticated access to sensitive information, including email addresses and phone numbers.

Testing its theory, the tech security newsletter used the method on some celebrity accounts and were able to access the details of Real Madrid footballer Kylian Mbappé, which showed he also has a personal TikTok account.

So does Cristiano Ronaldo’s wife, Georgina Rodríguez, according to the information gathered from International Cyber Digest.

Cyber Digest said on X: ‘Yet another Meta f***-up: its account recovery function allows unauthenticated access to full account PII, including emails and phone numbers, from just a username. We verified the claim and found social media and wine-app accounts belonging to several public figures.’

Meta has been contacted for comment.

Last week, Metro reported that hackers had been tricking Meta’s AI chatbot to change other people’s passwords.

Cybersecurity experts estimated that around 100 high-value accounts were looted, with some being flogged on black market services.

Barack Obama’s now-unused White House Instagram, which has more than 2,400,000 followers, was among those hacked, as was former Meta security engineer, Jane Manchun Wong.

In a post on X she said: ‘Even my Instagram account got hacked.

‘The password got changed without my knowledge and I was getting different password reset attempts throughout yesterday. And I got repeatedly logged out from the IG iOS app. Quite concerning.’

Meta has since said the issue has been resolved.

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