– It’s all gone – VG

Solveig Garnås (24) faced the loss everythingWhen her Instagram account was hacked. She is not alone.

– I couldn’t go back. Garnas says everything is gone.

Earlier this year, she lost access to her Instagram account.

The 24-year-old was contacted by message, and was told that she had won a competition she had previously entered.

But before Garnås could receive the award, she had to submit her email address via a link.

Then I got a notification that someone in another country has logged into my Instagram.

She also had two other accounts linked to the email. All three accounts were hacked.

a growing problem

Over the past week, VG has been in contact with several people who have lost access to their social media accounts. Police Online reports a growing problem last year.

– We estimate that on average we get approx. 2-3 Instagram hack inquiries weekly across our channels in the Eastern Police District, says the online patrol professional leader, Justin Dumer.

This does not include any reviews or tips that come in other ways.

He further states that almost all methods revolve around persuading or deceiving the account holder to do something, so that the offender can gain access to the account.

– Why would someone want to hack others?

There can be many reasons for this, but there is mostly a financial motive behind it and the victims are random people. Hacked accounts are used to commit fraud or as part of new account theft.

– You have it all there

– It’s like losing everything out of control.

People often associate heavily with their social media accounts, and Garnås has struggled with that too.

– You have it all there. Messages, photos, and other things that have been saved.

So she describes it as embarrassing, when she realized she had to create a new one — and start over.

– I’ve had this account since I got Instagram, so I got bored.

losing control

Melanie Magen, a professor in NTNU’s Department of Sociology and Political Science and an expert on social media, says that people have strong emotions when they lose control of their personal data is something I think is perfectly understandable.

She says social media has become an essential part of life for many, and it can feel upsetting to lose control of sensitive information.

– It’s like a violation of privacy.

Majin continues to say that many users on social media collect memories from the experiences and themes that move them, as a kind of digital diary.

– This content is very personal.

He adds:

For some, it sure feels like losing a piece of their personal history. Start over and create a new network.

Pretend to be me

And it wasn’t just Garnas who lost his account.

– People I know have been hacked from my previous account.

The person who accessed the 24-year-old’s Instagram got, through messages, her friends’ accounts as well.

I found this difficult.

– At least when the person was on my account, he called his friends and pretended to be me.

After the accident, she realized the importance of securing her account.

– And don’t be naive then.

Acknowledging that we can always improve

– We fully understand that it is unpleasant to be hacked, wrote Regitze Reeh in an email to VG.

She is the Director of Nordic Communications for the owner of Instagram Meta in the Nordics.

We also try to help our users as best as possible by offering and constantly improving a number of tools and security functions, but we know that we can always improve, at least given the increased skills of hackers.

Meta recommends that everyone activate two-step verification and turn on notifications about unknown logins.

– The amount of time it takes to recover personal files accessed by hackers varies, because cases have different degrees of complexity.