According to a report by TechCrunch , Instagram user data has been leaked online . Specifically, a social media service called Social Captain , which helps users increase their number of followers, has leaked thousands of usernames and passwords belonging to users of the well-known social networking platform.
According to the report, the Social Captain service passwords account in plain text, without any encryption or protection.
A vulnerability on the service's website allowed anyone to log into the accounts of users using Social Captain.
The discovery was made by a security who did not want to give his name. The researcher alerted to the existence of the vulnerability and provided a file with approximately 10,000 exposed Instagram user accounts.
About 70 accounts were premium.
Social Captain said it took steps to immediately fix the vulnerability, preventing unauthorized access to other users' profiles.
Instagram, for its part, stated that the service violated its data protection terms by storing users' credentials without any protection
“We are already investigating and will take appropriate action. We encourage people to never give their passwords to someone they don’t know or trust,” an Instagram spokesperson said.
According to a security expert from the Synopsys Software Integrity Group, design errors are responsible for 50% of all software vulnerabilities.
“They are rarely detected as they require specialized expertise. However, in this case, a penetration test could easily identify the vulnerability,” the expert said.
"This is particularly bad for the users who have been affected, not only because Instagram passwords have been compromised, but also because people often reuse passwords, which means someone could gain unauthorized access to other accounts as well," it said.
Instagram has faced other incidents of data leaks of its users. Last May, for example, the personal data of millions of celebrities and influencers. Once again, the leak was started by a mistake by a third-party service. The database, which was leaked, contained 49 million files.
Also in 2017, an Instagram bug led to the leak of personal information from 6 million famous users, including Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian. The stolen files were later put up for sale.
