The AFR’s Will Willitts learnt a tough lesson in cyber security, when he lost control of his Instagram account. Which brings me to another key thought: that of feeling totally vulnerable and at a loss. tried that a couple of times to regain access, but as soon as I’d get in (and because I didn’t have 2FA previously set up and the bad guys now had), they’d snatch it back – in real time, as I helplessly watched. You can also submit a video selfie that lets them use facial recognition if there’s a photo of you in your account (they don’t keep that video for more than 30 days and never make it public). That involves answering questions, getting security codes sent to originally registered emails and mobiles. Now Facebook and Instagram do have strong measures in place – if you have 2FA – to ensure your safety.Īnd for idiots like me, there are procedures to try to reclaim an account. “Hi, you were suggested as a friend to hit up for a help link that I can submit to get back into my account … they keep requesting I get the help link from 3 of my friends … check your phone for the link sent by text, just take a screenshot mate and send it back”. Within minutes, friends and family and contacts were getting this kind of talk, trying to ensnare them also into handing over their accounts: something about he couldn’t get into an account and needed to text me something quick and have me take a screenshot to regain his account’s access … I never got his text and besides, I was on holidays. It read, as he often begins: “Maaaaaaaate …” And while I had 2FA on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, somehow I missed Instagram.Īs the story goes, It was a dark and rainy night … I was in Vancouver last month, visiting family for the first time since before COVID-19, when I got a message on Insta from a friend I haven’t seen in a while. I like to think I’m tech-savvy, I pride myself that in the early noughties, I got an invite from Google to join a new service they wanted to call “Gmail” and nailed an address no one else can ever claim. I’m one of the tens of thousands of Australians who fall victim to the malevolence every year. “I got hacked,” says me (a long-time financial news journo who thought he was “street-smart”) even though it hurts to say so. I sure wish I had a few years back 2FA stands for Two Factor Authentication and will pretty much ensure you won’t fall victim to some slick-talking Nigerian hackers, criminals who’ve mastered Aussie accents and a knack for mimicking your friends’ lingo. Look hard at those three characters and burn them into your brain.
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