{"id":110841,"date":"2026-01-12T17:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=110841"},"modified":"2026-01-12T17:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:31:10","slug":"instagram-denies-breach-after-many-receive-emails-asking-to-reset-password","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=110841","title":{"rendered":"Instagram denies breach after many receive emails asking to reset password"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>1 Minute, 58 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Instagram has denied it has been victim to a data breach after many users received emails prompting them to reset their password.<\/p>\n

The firm said it had resolved a problem which allowed \u201can external party\u201d to get the social media platform to send out legitimate password reset requests to users.<\/p>\n

Instagram said there had been no breach of its systems, and told users their accounts were secure.<\/p>\n

But some experts have questioned the statement, with cyber security firm Malwarebytes claiming the password reset emails had in fact been sent as a result of a hack.<\/p>\n

\u201cCybercriminals stole the sensitive information of 17.5 million Instagram accounts, including usernames, physical addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and more,\u201d it claimed in a post on X, along with a screenshot of a password reset email from Instagram.<\/p>\n

No further details were given by the company, but the post has been viewed more than 2.3 million times.<\/p>\n

Malwarebytes told the BBC it believed the password reset emails were a direct result of an ongoing sale of private data on a hacker forum, where a criminal has claimed to have the personal details of 17.5 million Instagram users.<\/p>\n

The advert claims the data comes from a \u201cleak\u201d in 2024.<\/p>\n

But some security researchers think it is actually an old database that was gathered from data which could be publicly viewed \u2013 such as names and locations \u2013 in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u2018No breach\u2019<\/h2>\n

The password reset emails coupled with the Malwarebytes warning has prompted confusion for thousands of people on social media.<\/p>\n

And Instagram\u2019s explanation also posed questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fixed an issue that let an external party request password reset emails for some people,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no breach of our systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Instagram did not respond to the BBC\u2019s questions about who the external party was which could send out legitimate password reset requests on behalf of the firm.<\/p>\n

The emails caused concern for some users on social media, who feared it was a scam or phishing attempt designed to glean more of their details.<\/p>\n

But the links in the email do not appear to be malicious, and the password reset process a user is guided through appeared to be legitimate.<\/p>\n

However the advice, as ever, is to go straight to the website or app to make changes to passwords and add extra protection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"InstagramInstagram has denied it has been victim to a data breach after many users received emails prompting them to reset their password.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7356,12768,15251,10,9,2139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-email","category-instagram","category-password","category-politics","category-popular","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}