Since Instagram was created nine years ago, more than 6 million Instagram personal accounts have been hacked. Today, almost everyone uses social media, but not many realize how easily their accounts can be compromised.

One of my close friends from school recently complained that her Instagram account had been hacked again. Natalie Lee made her social media account when she was just thirteen, and have since then posted her photos and videos on a daily basis. However, her account was recently hacked, and she can no longer log into her account or view previous pictures that she had posted. When her account was compromised, Natalie said that she “not only lost her photos and videos but also valuable personal information, such as contacts.” More and more people are using social media, and social media is somewhat beneficial in expressing ourselves. But the problem is that, as the number of Instagram users continues to grow rapidly, it becomes more difficult to ensure the safety of the users. “It seems that even the CEO of Twitter cannot protect his social media account from being hacked. Just last month, in August, Jack Dorsey had his Twitter account hacked, and the hackers posted racial messages concerning the Holocaust,” added Natalie.

Instagram hacking causes severe problems such as locking others’ accounts, changing others’ personal information and usernames, and making profits by using others’ information. Hacking other’s information is a serious issue, because it invades people’s privacy. Hackers plant viruses or use software to hack personal accounts and devices. The viruses can spread with just the click of a button, so they spread really quickly and affect large numbers of people.

Michael Broaddus, an IT Assistant at Bishop Thomas K. Gorman High School, recommends that people avoid putting too much personal information on their feed. It is best to accept those followers whom they actually know in real life. From a technological perspective, though, “social media companies are also developing artificial intelligence technology to better protect personal information and address security issues. Predictive analytics and other AI-powered crime analysis tools can be used to predict the activities of future hackers. Also, using differential privacy, which uses reformation based on typed functioning program of privacy filters, offers a way to maintain private data,” Mr. Broaddus explained. Differential privacy makes code behavior more predictable and reduces the likelihood of system errors by making data not mutable. This type of solution can be used in trying to find patterns or indications of hackers, or find infected accounts.

 











Chanah Hwang
Grade 12
Bishop T.K Gorman Catholic High School

Copyright © The Herald Insight, All rights reseverd.