Security News

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.

Meta Platforms is said to have fired or disciplined over two dozen employees and contractors over the past year for allegedly compromising and taking over user accounts, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Included among those fired were contractors who worked as security guards at the social media firm's facilities and were given access to an internal tool that allowed employees to help "Users they know" gain access to accounts after forgetting their passwords, or had their accounts locked out.

Following yesterday's deadly blast on İstiklal Avenue in Istanbul, Turkish authorities began restricting access to social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Telegram as a nationwide broadcast ban went into effect. Reports of a bomb blast taking place on Istanbul's busy İstiklal street began circulating on Sunday, November 13th on social media platforms.

Nigerian-born Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, 40, also known as Ray Hushpuppi, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and will spend 11 years and three months behind bars in the United States for his role in multiple online fraud sprees. Photos of Abbas captured from his accounts show him living it up from his ill-gotten gains: relaxing on private jets, standing by luxury cars, ad so on.

Clicking on the "Disagree with decision" button lead the users to either a perpetually loading screen, a "Try again later" message, or a request to enter their username, password and security code to verify their account. Some where automatically logged out and, after trying to log in again, are being told by Instagram that the account with that email address or phone number does not exist.

Instagram users are currently experiencing issues signing into their accounts, some being notified that their accounts have been suspended. The social media platform says it's currently investigating these reports and confirmed that some users might have issues logging into their accounts.

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Iran is experiencing a near-total internet service disruption in the west and intermittent interruptions nationwide, with access to Instagram, Whatsapp and some mobile networks being blocked, says Netblocks. While Twitter and Facebook were banned in Iran years ago, Instagram and WhatsApp remained as one of the few accessible social media platforms in the country.

Blue badges are highly coveted as Instagram provides them to accounts it verified to be authentic, representing a public figure, celebrity, or brand. The spear emails in the recently observed phishing campaign inform recipients that they Instagram reviewed their accounts and deemed them eligible for a blue badge.

A platform for everyone to seamlessly share their best moments online, Instagram is slowly turning into a mecca for the undesirables-from sexual harassers to crypto "Investors" helping you "Get rich fast." American investor and hedge fund manager, Mark W. Yusko is one such person whose identity is being misused by not one-several Instagram scammers.