SINGAPORE: Social media site Instagram says it has fixed a security bug that allowed hackers to access the contact information of its users.
Last week, a group of hackers had put the email addresses and phone numbers of six million Instagram accounts up for sale on a website called Doxagram, where interested parties could search for victims' contact data at US$10 per inquiry using cryptocurrency.
"We recently discovered a bug on Instagram that could be used to access some people's email address and phone number even if they were not public," said Instagram CTO and co-founder Mike Krieger in a blog post on Friday (Sep 1).
"No passwords or other Instagram activity was revealed. We quickly fixed the bug, and have been working with law enforcement on the matter. Although we cannot determine which specific accounts may have been impacted, we believe it was a low percentage of Instagram accounts."
There are currently about 700 million active Instagram users.
The hackers sent a sample of 1,000 accounts to The Daily Beast, which confirmed that the data included accounts belonging to celebrities and other high-profile users, including Selena Gomez, whose account was hacked days earlier to send nude pictures of the singer's ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber to her followers.
The Doxagram site has since been taken down.
Instagram did not confirm if the security bug was related to the hacking of Selena Gomez's account, but it encouraged users to take additional security measures.
"Out of an abundance of caution, we encourage you to be vigilant about the security of your account, and exercise caution if you observe any suspicious activity such as unrecognised incoming calls, texts, or emails. Additionally, we're encouraging you to report any unusual activity through our reporting tools," wrote Krieger.
"Protecting the community has been important at Instagram from day one, and we're constantly working to make Instagram a safer place.
"We are very sorry this happened," he added.
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