Incidents of Instagram accounts hacking have been going on the rise, especially in the recent months, where it has become a common scenario to see people informing their friends that their account have been hacked and various luring links are being sent from their hacked account.
- Security Checkup
Instagram has been having a feature called “Security Checkup” since the year 2021. This said feature guides the instagram users through a series of security steps which allows them to set their contact email and phone numbers for verification. It also guides the users through multiple steps to secure their account again after they get hacked.
If someone logs into the instagram app from another device, the security feature alerts the account holder in their primary mobile devices, confirming whether it was them who logged into the new device.
2. Two-factor authentication
First, let us know what is two-factor authentication.
The word authentication refers to prove that you are who you claim to be. In the context of instagram account, authentication is proven when you prove that your account belongs to you as you have the password (which technically should be known only to you). Usually, we use password to prove this authentication, i.e. we use a (one) factor to prove our identity.
However, passwords can be stolen. Therefore, a single factor authentication is no more a guaranteed way to prove authenticity. Therefore, two-factor ( which adds another factor to our password, say, an SMS or an One Time Password (OTP).
Now that we know what is two-factor authentication, we can use two-factor authentication to secure our account.