Is Your Account on Instagram Being Hacked?

Initial Thoughts...

My thoughts prior to researching this topic were that even though having a private account on Instagram is thought to be the safest option when online, (and it very well could be) I still don't think it can guarantee your safety. Hackers or random people could probably access your account easier than most people would think, especially if you aren't confident with how social media works and if you aren't educated on the possible risks of it.

From Researching, I Found That...
Just because you have a private account, it doesn't mean that your account can't get hacked. Many accounts are hacked due to poor passwords that are easy for hackers to figure out and get into. Hackers also tend to go for the accounts with the most following of users for reasons such as if they end up getting into the account they have the most power if they wish to post something inappropriate or send out fake messages as the word gets spread around quicker, although don't think that you won't be targeted just because you don't have a big following. Hackers even have the power to switch private accounts to a public account making your information up for grabs to anyone without your consent.

By literally just searching up on Google 'how to hack into someone's Instagram account', I found hundreds of YouTube videos of how to do it. This shows that other platforms aren't doing anything to stop this type of hacking from happening as they could block, or take the videos down to prevent the hacking of accounts but instead they choose not to.

An example of an app/website that anyone could use to hack into and access a private account.

Survey Results...

Another source of information I used was a survey. I sent a survey out to the whole school containing 6 questions: 

• Is your account on Instagram private?
• If you do have Instagram has your account ever been hacked?
• Have you ever hacked into someone's Instagram account yourself?
• If you have hacked into an account, what was this experience like and how easy was it to hack someone?
• If you have a private account, how often do you allow people who you don't know access your account?
• Lastly, how well of a job do you think social media sites do at protecting your private information?

Overall I got 75 responses back, from this information I could conclude that...

1. The majority of people have a private account (58), while 10 people have a public account, 3 people don't have Instagram and 4 people don't have any social media at all.
2. Out of the 68 people who did have Instagram 61 had never had their account hacked into and 7 people did.
3. 65 people had never hacked into someone's Instagram account before while 7 had.
4. Most people (23) rarely let people into their account who they don't know.
5. Overall, most students (34) rated how well social media companies do at protecting our private information at 3 out of 5 stars, which is what I would've rated it if I did this survey myself.

Some of the 16 responses I got for the question; If you have hacked into an account, what was this experience like and how easy was it to hack someone? included: "It was pretty fun, it was very easy as the password to the person's account was easy, the person only found out (that I was in their account) from a friend", 2 people said that they were "just seeing if the password was right and it was", and another said, "I wouldn't say hacked, it's just funny when people sign in on your phone and you can freely use their account". There was also someone who said that "they haven't hacked into someone's account but their sister has tried to hack their account numerous times which is quite frustrating".

Conclusion...

In conclusion from conducting this experiment, I found out that the main cause of being able to get hacked is from having a poor password for your Instagram or email it's linked up to. A good/strong password is classified as one that has around 12 characters, has both numbers and some upper-case and lower-case letters as well. Passwords like these may be a bit harder to remember but it makes sure they are not easy to crack, it's also advised to change them frequently (once every one or two months).

7 students out of the 75 I surveyed had hacked into someone else's account. Even though this is barely 10% of students, most of them managed to get into the account probably without doing it before. If this is how easily students can hack and access accounts, could you imagine how easy it is for advanced and experienced hackers to hack or guess your password? Especially if some of them are getting paid to hack and sell your information onto other people or companies without your knowledge, they will then have more pressure and a monetary incentive to hack people and will, therefore, work harder.

Public accounts are easier to hack into than private accounts, but as I have said before, having a private account on Instagram does NOT ensure your safety. Don't tell your password to anyone, even your friends as some friends can try to hack your account as a joke but your account and your messages/private information is still quite personal and isn't a laughing matter if it gets spread around.

Big social media companies such as Instagram, Youtube, and Facebook (who owns Instagram) need to step up their game when it comes to securing information and blocking hackers as well as videos on how to hack so that stuff like exploiting people's private information won't continue to happen in the future and so we can use social media without feeling vulnerable and unsafe.

Resources:
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-for-a-private-account-on-Instagram-to-get-hacked
https://later.com/blog/instagram-account-hacked/
https://www.ntconnections.net/blog/how-can-instagram-accounts-be-hacked/

Written by Olivia C.