Ask HN: How does my Instagram keep getting compromised? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How does my Instagram keep getting compromised?

#31

Post by andkon » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 7:00 PM UTC

china wrote: post #21

barbazoo wrote: post #15

Someone at Facebook stealing your domain is quite an accusation. Assuming your domain was similar to your username/IG handle, wouldn't it be more likely to be people wanting your "china" domain for spam/malware/propaganda/etc?

I think the stealing of my domain was a bit of social engineering by a hacker (not somebody at FB). Now, my account gets taken without any noticeable trace on my end. No security emails, no suspicious login attempts, nada...

Contra the above dude, I don't think it's all that strange for Facebook employees to profit directly off of their access to these systems. See this article about how employees charge for verifications: https://mashable.com/article/instagram-verification-paid-bla...

Re: Ask HN: How does my Instagram keep getting compromised?

#32

Post by jandrese » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 7:00 PM UTC

KaiserPro wrote: post #5

FDSGSG wrote: post #3

> My current theory is there is some employee at Meta that's ultimately stealing the account This happens all the time, there is no recourse. Instagram employees are constantly taking usernames for themselves.

wait what? how are they not fired, thats got to be against the "community guidelines" (unless of course its for an advertiser or political organisation. )

I assume they aren't emailing Mark Zuckerberg with every account they steal. All it takes is lax internal auditing and a culture where customer service[1] is not valued and this could go on for a very long time.

[1] Ok, this is a little unfair. They do have customer service, but what they don't have is product service, and this guy is just part of the product, not a customer.

Re: Ask HN: How does my Instagram keep getting compromised?

#33

Post by cronix » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 7:01 PM UTC

docdeek wrote: post #18

If your IG handle is the same as your HN handle, could it be some very motivated people from that country's bureaucracy looking to take that handle for the state?

Likely a phone call is all it would take and Meta would happily hand it over.

Re: Ask HN: How does my Instagram keep getting compromised?

#34

Post by iKlsR » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 7:04 PM UTC

I'd auction and sell it and be done with the headache personally. It's likely one day your meta well will dry up and that will be it, years of back and forth to see the handle gone and promoting crypto eventually or some crap.

Re: Ask HN: How does my Instagram keep getting compromised?

#35

Post by cronix » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 7:04 PM UTC

barbazoo wrote: post #15

Someone at Facebook stealing your domain is quite an accusation. Assuming your domain was similar to your username/IG handle, wouldn't it be more likely to be people wanting your "china" domain for spam/malware/propaganda/etc?

Publicly pondering a theory is an accusation now?

Re: Ask HN: How does my Instagram keep getting compromised?

#36

Post by cryptoz » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 7:11 PM UTC

cronix wrote: post #33

docdeek wrote: post #18

If your IG handle is the same as your HN handle, could it be some very motivated people from that country's bureaucracy looking to take that handle for the state?

Likely a phone call is all it would take and Meta would happily hand it over.

Instagram stole @sussexroyal from a real user, and gave it to some entitled "royals" who used the account for like a year before dropping it. So annoying how your handle isn't your handle, it's the company's, and they will steal your handle at a whim.

I never even figured out why the "Royals" wanted specifically @sussexroyal or whatever it was so badly. The Royals can't even be like the rest of us and pick a handle that is available, they have to be like "well no we deserve this one even though someone has it already"

Re: Ask HN: How does my Instagram keep getting compromised?

#37

Post by pkrotich » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 7:12 PM UTC

supercoffee wrote: post #30

pkrotich wrote: post #9

Your situation is apparently common nowadays with OG usernames and can get very dangerous. I had no idea this was a thing until I listened to an episode on Darknet Diaries [0] recently. In the old days, I remember people going after short domains in the same manner. ICANN ended up adding locking (auth codes) - perhaps IG and other social sites can learn from it. Be safe! [0] https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/106/

Reply All also did an episode about this a few years back. https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/v4he6k tl;dr There's underground marketplaces where shady people buy and sell OG usernames for money, which creates an incentive for shady people to steal them from the original owners.

Perhaps incentives don't line up... but I'm wondering if social media sites like IG should make renting out usernames a thing - obviously there's a market for it. If I'm taking social media hiatus, for example, I wouldn't mind getting paid while away.

Re: Ask HN: How does my Instagram keep getting compromised?

#38

Post by jmnicolas » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 7:14 PM UTC

barbazoo wrote: post #15

Someone at Facebook stealing your domain is quite an accusation. Assuming your domain was similar to your username/IG handle, wouldn't it be more likely to be people wanting your "china" domain for spam/malware/propaganda/etc?

> Someone at Facebook stealing your domain is quite an accusation.

NSA employees do it, why would META employees would be better than the average?

Re: Ask HN: How does my Instagram keep getting compromised?

#39

Post by AdamJacobMuller » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 7:20 PM UTC

cryptoz wrote: post #36

cronix wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely a phone call is all it would take and Meta would happily hand it over.

Instagram stole @sussexroyal from a real user, and gave it to some entitled "royals" who used the account for like a year before dropping it. So annoying how your handle isn't your handle, it's the company's, and they will steal your handle at a whim. I never even figured out why the "Royals" wanted specifically @sussexroyal or whatever it was so badly . The Royals can't even be like the rest of us and pick a handle…

> So annoying how your handle isn't your handle, it's the companies, and they will steal your handle at a whim.

You don't own digital assets in any sense (excepting crypto, which is a whole other set of problems), at best you have a contract with some rights of use.

Re: Ask HN: How does my Instagram keep getting compromised?

#40

Post by heurisko » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 7:20 PM UTC

pkrotich wrote: post #9

Your situation is apparently common nowadays with OG usernames and can get very dangerous. I had no idea this was a thing until I listened to an episode on Darknet Diaries [0] recently. In the old days, I remember people going after short domains in the same manner. ICANN ended up adding locking (auth codes) - perhaps IG and other social sites can learn from it. Be safe! [0] https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/106/

I'm not up-to-date with what OG means. Apparently OG "original gangster" usernames refer to common words such as "@Miracle", that were registered by early adopters.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/style/instagram-account-f...