Instagram has suffered a data breach in which it says intruders may have access to personal data of some “high profile” users. Some of the data stolen includes phone numbers and email addresses following an exploitation of a bug in Instagram’s API (application programming interface). That said, they added that passwords were not stolen and that the bug has already been fixed which means in other words, they have stopped the attacks at least for now.
The warning is just for users to be aware and take caution and probably change passwords if need be. But in cases like this, it’s usually difficult to immediately access the extent of damage and the Yahoo breach is the best example of this.
But assessments so far by people familiar with the issue suggests that users still don’t have much to worry about and that the attack doesn’t seem to be widespread but we have seen what these kinds of breaches can do to a company.
Yahoo used to be worth $128b just a few years ago but by the time Verizon came for it, it was worth just $4.8b and after the security breach revelations, another $350m was taken off its value.
Instagram has over 500 million users and cannot afford for such breaches to be a regular thing.
Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
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