At first look, the emails from the hackers look legitimate since they use Instagram logos. They offer verified badges, claim your account has been hacked and needs to be secured, or accuse you of violating copyrights. This has made it more difficult for users to recognize a phishing email. However, the hackers just want you to click a link and type your login information into hacker controlled webpage.
These phishing emails usually are about the security of your account and tell you to change some settings or update some details. At the bottom of these emails is a link that is supposed to take you to the official website where you can log in and make these mentioned changes. But in reality, this link takes you to a phishing website that looks just like the original. When you enter your credentials on this phishing site, they are stolen and then you are redirected to the actual website.
Instagram also sends emails to its users, but not all emails that claim to come from Instagram are genuine. Phishing is still a common way to gain access to social network accounts and Instagram is a key target for hackers.
Therefore, Instagram has added a new security feature to help users find out if an email was sent by Instagram or if it's an attempted phishing attack. Instagram launched this new feature mainly to stop phishing attacks from hackers.
This new security feature will verify the emails sent to users. The main goal of this feature is to help users to differentiate between phishing emails and the genuine ones that claim to be from Instagram.
Now, you can check the email you received is sent by Instagram or not by going over to the "Emails From Instagram" option in the app's security settings.
The "Emails From Instagram" divides your Instagram emails into two categories : Security and Other. One tab, labeled Security, will show you a list of emails that are related to account security. And the second tab, labeled Other, will show you a list of emails such as announcements about new features or direct message notifications that aren't related to account security.
The "Emails From Instagram" lists the emails that Instagram sent you over the last 14 days. if you see an email you received in the list then you can be sure it's safe, and you can safely click any links it contains. However, if you don't see the email you received in the list then you should delete the email immediately because it could be a phishing attack.
So, if you now receive an email that looks suspicious, you can check the "Emails From Instagram" list and if you don't see it there, you know it's a phishing attempt.
The same settings will also be available on the desktop version of the Instagram app. The feature replicated the same functionality on Facebook, which was first launched back in 2017.
It's encouraging to see social media companies making an effort to increase the levels of security.
Since phishing attacks are getting more and more advanced, this feature is definitely a nice addition. This feature makes it very easy for anyone to identify phishing emails that pretend to be sent by Instagram. This feature should also be adopted by other apps and services.
I hope you find useful information in this article. If you have any questions related to Instagram's new security feature then please mention in the comments section and I will get back to you and stay tuned with my blog to learn interesting things related to cybersecurity and hacking.
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