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| Instagram fights rare username theft |
Instagram has disabled hundreds of stolen accounts in an online hacking operation aimed at gaining and selling rare and sought-after usernames.
According to a press report and a cybersecurity expert (Brian Krebs), TikTok and Twitter have taken action against some accounts owned by the same hacker.
This Facebook-owned platform focuses its attention on the community around OGUsers, which is known for having stolen usernames making it easier to access these accounts by switching SIM cards and other methods.
A Facebook spokesperson said, “Today we will remove hundreds of accounts associated with members of the OGUsers forum. These accounts harass, blackmail, and harm the Instagram community. We will continue to do our best to make it difficult for you to use Instagram usernames.
This disclosure is noteworthy as this is the first time that the platform has published public information about username hijacking.
Earlier this week, Instagram released a new feature that allows users to recover deleted posts in the event that hackers take control of their account and delete it.
Krebs (Krebs) said the campaign was a joint effort as Twitter and TikTok also targeted popular members of the OGUsers community through those companies' platforms.
TikTok said that as part of our ongoing work to detect and stop bad behavior, we recently recovered several Tik Tok usernames and continued to focus on scalable strategies for managing bad actors.
Not only did the social platform disable stolen accounts and render them worthless, it also disabled some well-known OGUser accounts that acted as intermediaries in username transfer transactions.
Last summer, OGUsers made headlines and a small group of hackers associated with websites were believed to be involved in an unprecedented Twitter hacking attack.
A Twitter hack resets passwords on the accounts of dozens of high-profile individuals and companies and uses access to carry out bitcoin scams.
Rare usernames are often, in rare cases, unique words, letters or numbers, and can make tens of thousands of dollars worth of stolen digital goods from underground markets.
And since platforms like Instagram and Twitter have regulations prohibiting the sale and purchase of accounts, hackers intending to purchase one of these coveted names often resort to illegal means to obtain the account.