Security News
The Cyber Police of Ukraine has arrested three individuals on suspicion of hijacking more than 100 million emails and Instagram accounts from users across the world. The suspects, aged between 20...
Facebook and Instagram users worldwide have been logged out of the sites and are having trouble logging in, receiving errors that their passwords are incorrect. The outage has caused people to automatically get logged out of Meta and for Instagram to no longer work, giving errors like "Couldn't refresh feed."
The problem seems to have gotten much worse on Instagram over the past year with its parent company Meta falling short of effectively tackling fake profiles even when there are sufficient signs to indicate that a profile is misusing someone else's photos and identity. In our investigation, BleepingComputer observed instances where reporting fake profiles that impersonated an internet personality or a public figure concluded in such reports being dismissed after being processed, at least in part, through what appeared to be an automated decision-making system.
The problem seems to have gotten much worse on Instagram over the past year with its parent company Meta falling short of effectively tackling fake profiles even when there are sufficient signs to indicate that a profile is misusing someone else's photos and identity. In our investigation, BleepingComputer observed instances where reporting fake profiles that impersonated an internet personality or a public figure concluded in such reports being dismissed after being processed, at least in part, through what appeared to be an automated decision-making system.
Link history stores records for 30 days, can be used to recall pages previously read, and excludes links sent in messages. Less prominently mentioned on help pages describing the feature on Facebook and Instagram is, of course, perhaps the real reason for the capability: "We may use link history information from our browser to improve your ads across Meta technologies."
A new phishing campaign pretending to be a 'copyright infringement' email attempts to steal the backup codes of Instagram users, allowing hackers to bypass the two-factor authentication configured on the account. When configuring two-factor authentication on Instagram, the site will also provide eight-digit backup codes that can be used to regain access to accounts if you cannot verify your account using 2FA. This could happen for multiple reasons, such as switching your mobile number, losing your phone, and losing access to your email account.
The European Data Protection Board has extended the temporary ban on targeted advertising on Facebook and Instagram, imposed by the Norwegian Data Protection Authority in July. The European watchdog's 27 October urgent binding decision instructs Ireland's Data Protection Commission to ban the processing of personal data for behavioral advertising across the entire European Economic Area within two weeks.
Instagram's dedicated text-sharing app, Threads, is set to introduce many new features, including Twitter-style hashtags, an edit button, a trending page, and possibly even an automatic archiving function. Instagram's Head, Adam Mosseri, confirmed these upcoming features in a series of posts on Threads.
Instagram Threads, the upcoming Twitter competitor from Meta, will not be launched in the European Union due to privacy concerns, according to Ireland's Data Protection Commission. Threads is Meta's answer to Twitter that's set for launch on July 6, 2023.
Meta Platforms on Tuesday said it took down a network of accounts and pages across Facebook and Instagram that were operated by people associated with the U.S. military to spread narratives that depicted the country in a favorable light in the Middle East and Central Asia. The social media giant stated the individuals behind the activity impersonated the communities they targeted, propagating content in Arabic, Farsi, and Russian that criticized Iran, China, and Russia, and floated themes of increased military cooperation with the U.S. These narratives spanned "Russia's invasion of Ukraine, China's treatment of the Uyghur people, Iran's influence in the Middle East, and the support of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan by Russia and China," Meta said in its Quarterly Adversarial Threat Report.