How to protect your Instagram account

In the wake of the hacking phenomenon that has spread to Instagram, many people are wondering how to protect the Instagram account from being hacked.

Infiltration is certainly a confusing and scary situation, especially if you're an Instagram-based business to promote sales, or earn leads!

So what you can do to protect your Instagram account.

In the following article, we identify five important strategies to protect the Instagram account and to stop hackers and hackers.

Instagram breakthroughs in August 2018

On August 13, 2018, Mashable published a detailed article on how hundreds of Instagram accounts were hacked since the beginning of the month.

According to the article, users in multiple countries were experiencing the same alien intrusion situation; they were logged out of Instagram, changed their private usernames, their personal photos, and contact information associated with their accounts was changed to Russian e-mail addresses.

While Instagram quickly commented that it did not notice an increase in piracy that month, any quick search on Twitter about Instagram hacked at the time revealed hundreds of Instagram users complaining of recent account closures.

Push Instagram to post an article the next day, acknowledge the hack, and advise affected users on how to recover their accounts (if your account is compromised, we recommend that you check the Instagram directory as soon as possible).

While we're still unsure how this hacking could occur, it might be a good time to review the security of your Instagram account, so here are five tips to help protect your Instagram account from hacking:

Protect your Instagram account

Choose a strong password: The most predictable advice, the traditional step of any insurance, and, of course, the most important. One of the most common ways hackers enter accounts is by guessing passwords or using old passwords that have been collected for data breaches, so a strong and complex password can never be overlooked.

While Instagram recommends using at least a six-digit set of letters and punctuation marks, most security experts suggest a password that is at least 8 characters long. You must also update your Instagram password regularly; once or twice a year at least according to most experts, you may also want to use the Password Manager to keep track of your passwords and manage them.

Activate binary authentication: Almost all major applications provide some forms of binary authentication (2FA), which of course includes Instagram. After you turn on dual authentication, when you sign in to Instagram from an unknown device, you will be asked to enter the SMS security code, as well as your username and password. This can help block any attempts by hackers to log in to your account and change your contact information .

To enable dual authentication, go to your Instagram profile and press the Settings button, scroll down, click Binary authentication, and then turn on authentication by text message.

If your account does not have a confirmed phone number, you will be asked to enter a number, and once you enter it, click the Next button.

Now, when you sign in to your Instagram account from an unknown device, you will be asked to enter the security code you receive via SMS.

But recently, in light of the above-mentioned hack, Instagram announced a more robust authentication system that allows you to use third-party authentication applications to sign in to your Instagram account.

To use a third-party app to sign in to your Instagram account, go to your profile, click the menu icon, select Settings at the bottom, then choose Binary authentication.

Then, choose Apply Authentication as the preferred method of authentication.

If you already have an authenticated application installed, Instagram will automatically find the application and send a sign-in code to it, and you'll need to copy the code and enter it on Instagram, and the binary authentication will work automatically.

If you do not have an authentication application, go to the app store or Google Play store to download it first and continue with the dual authentication setting.

Ensure your email account is secure: Your email is very similar to the main gateway to your online accounts. If someone has access to it, it also has access to everything else you've used for your email, so make sure it's completely secure !

Most e-mail providers have robust systems to prevent unwanted logon attempts and provide security measures such as e-mail encryption and binary authentication. If you want to protect your Instagram account, you should make sure that your e-mail account is equally secure and possibly more secure.

Revoke access to suspicious third-party applications: One of the latest security tips in Instagram is to revoke access to any suspicious third-party applications.

This basically means any sites or apps that do not follow the community guidelines in Instagram or the Terms of Use (including Instagram bot applications that display likes, comments, and other accounts on your behalf).

To manage your third-party applications, open your account on your computer's browser, click the Settings button, and then click Supported Apps.

Here's a list of apps that allowed you to access your profile and account information. If you notice anything strange, you can easily disable third-party app access with a click of a button.

Additional tips: Although the tips above should be enough to protect your Instagram account, but a little extra care will not hurt anyone at all. Here are some other important notes:

First, you should always sign out of Instagram when you're using a computer, or a shared phone, and if you're signed in to Instagram from a public computer, make sure the Remember me box is not checked, as this will keep you logged even after you close your browser.

Second, do not give your password to someone you do not know or do not trust. This may be pretty obvious, but one of the most common ways hackers get on user accounts is phishing. The pirates send you an email Contains a link to a fake Instagram login page, and when you sign in with your email and password, they get your credentials.

To prevent this from occurring, make sure that binary authentication is turned on and that the e-mail messages that you receive are always legitimate.

Thirdly, you should be more careful with the accounts you follow, or follow Instagram, and with this new About This Account, it will be easy to do so.

Using About This Account, you can see more information about certain Instagram accounts reaching a large audience, in this way, you can evaluate how safe, and reliable the account is.

To learn more about someone's account, go to their profile, click the three horizontal blob button, then select About This Account.

There, you'll see the date that the account joined Instagram, the country where the account is located, the accounts that involved your followers, and any changes to your username last year, with any ads currently running.

With the number of Instagram accounts recently hacked to thousands, and the evolution of this great platform in the recent period, through its penetration in many areas of daily life, it is very important to take the right steps to protect the account Instagram and protect yourself from intruders.