Instagram Data Leaked to Public: Full Names and Phone Numbers
A big security issue for the Facebook group companies, with an Instagram data leak was came open by exposing hidden contact information including the real names of millions of Instagram users and their phone numbers.
Given that the hack was relatively simple and did not require advanced technical skill, it is quite possible that other parties have accessed private Instagram information in this way. However, it did not appear to expose any payment information. Seems in the coming days, that is also possible.
It was limited to looking up personal contact information by way of a set of vulnerabilities in the platform’s login form and its “Sync Contacts” feature. Forbes corroborated the story by having the Israeli hacker, who goes by the handle ZHacker13, access account data that reporters knew to be accurate.
The hack began with a simple brute force login attempt through the standard Instagram web interface. The hacker found a means to feed phone numbers to the login form, which would then flag the number if it was in use by an account. Instagram did not limit the amount of attempts one could run, the report says.
This vulnerability in Instagram cannot be used to gain illicit access to accounts, but the phone numbers and real names it exposed are frequently not meant to be seen by the public. Knowledge of the phone number connected to the account could create a pathway for an attacker to take it over by way of a SIM swap attack.
Instagram issued a statement that the vulnerability had been patched out and that there was no illicit access of data in this way prior to the discovery, but it is always difficult to know these things for sure. Companies often do not learn of prior illicit access until account information starts appearing in dark web collections.
Breaches like this recent Instagram data leak are sometimes met with an attitude of indifference; what can someone do with your name and phone number?
An expert say, when there is growing vulnerability increases day by day, why to use social media, what one is going to get after getting into social media, time is not far enough, many countries are going to follow China model, in banning the social media. Requested not to be named.
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