How to secure an Instagram account and protect it from hackers

Hello everyone! I know that many of you are afraid of being hacked on their social media accounts. With the increase of hacked accounts recently, this can become a real struggle for everyone! For some of you, that are content creators and influencers, your social media accounts represent years of very hard work that you don’t want to lose, but it is also obviously your personal life and your privacy.

With all the stories we are hearing every day, it’s easy to get into a big paranoia and become obsessed with this! But honnestly don’t panic I’m here for you! There are almost zero risks of being hacked if you are following the following tips! In this post, I will let you know everything about how to secure your Instagram account or any of your social media accounts (Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Youtube) and protect it from hackers.

Today with more than 1 billion monthly users, Instagram is struggling with hackers. The company is currently working hard to stop this problem and protect its users. But there are still several tips you should set up immediately to secure your accounts and protect them from hackers! After much research on this topic and the tips of professionals, I can give you today the best tips! Read on! 😉

Secure your Instagram account now and protect it from hackers

1 Pick a (very) strong password

The first tip is the most important: you need to pick a strong password with a minimum of 15 characters which is a mix of special characters (@,’&!/+?°-“), a mix of capital and small letters (mLkJhG). Don’t use existing words and even less the name of your boyfriend, your pet, your city, or a person in your family! That would be too easy to guess.

The most important is to create words that don’t exist. Why not create a word with all the first letters of a sentence? For example, My Instagram Password Is Secured Now. The word will be MiPiSn. Tada! now it’s your turn! Also, don’t forget to change your password every 3 months and disconnect all the devices when it’s done.

2 Be careful of which App you give access to your account

Sometimes, some websites or applications are asking to have access to your Instagram account. Apparently they have not your password and can not access your account. But they can have access to your media profile and basic information. Anyway, you still need to be careful about who has access to your account. You can check who has access to your account currently and revoke access to these third-party apps at any moment.

You just need to 1. Connect your account on the desktop. 2. Go to your profile and click on settings. Then, 3. click on apps and websites. You will see the list of the different websites and apps that have access to your account. 4 Click on “Revoke access” for the app you want to disconnect to your account. 5. Click “Yes” to continue.

3 Active the two-factor authentification

Ok, this one is probably the more efficient of these tips. Indeed, to secure your Instagram account, to should absolutely activate the two-factor authentification, it’s a must! By requiring a second form of authentification, after entering your password, a hacker can not access your account. Even if the person has your password. Indeed, when the password is entered, Instagram will ask the code, sent to your phone. It’s a 6 numbers code that you will receive by message.

To activate the double factor authentification, you need to 1. Go on the mobile App. 2. Click on settings 3. Then, click on security 4 Click on two-factor authentification. 5. Click on “text message” and enter your phone number.

4 Secure your email and the other linked accounts

Keep in mind that if someone gets access to your email, he will have access to all your social media accounts! The best way to secure your social media accounts is to pick a very strong password for your email, as we said precedently and also change your password regularly (every 3 months). Also, you can now with Gmail (Google) activate a two-factor authentification. Moreover, be careful of what other emails are linked to yours and what other social accounts are linked to yours. If you are not sure about the security of these other accounts, revoke the links between these accounts and yours! You don’t need to add more risks!

5 Always disconnect your account after using the app

Also, you need to be careful when you are sharing a computer or a phone with other people. Don’t forget to disconnect your account after using the App if you are sharing the computer/phone. You should also don’t save your password on your computer because if someone installs a virus on your computer, they will have direct access to all your accounts (social media, email, Paypal). Which is really dangerous. By the way, when I was working in the hotel industry, the IT service had forbidden everyone to save any password on the computers for this reason. We should always write the password every time we want to connect. You can still write the passwords somewhere and then copy/paste them.

6 Never open and click on the links of infected emails

Another really good way to secure your Instagram account and protect them from being hacked is to never open weird emails and even less click on the infected links! This is the main way that hackers are using to hack someone. Indeed, hackers are creating fake Paypal, Facebook, Instagram, or even brand collabs emails that contain infected links. Be careful because even if sometimes it is easy to see, unfortunately, sometimes it really looks like a real email.

This can take the appearance of an Instagram email asking you to connect to your account for any reason, or asking you if you want to have the certification (lol). It is often looking like a brand that wants to collaborate with you and sharing a fake link to a range of products to make you choose a product. Then, they are waiting for you to click on the infected links and they will take control of your account asking you a huge amount of money. If that happens to you, never pay them. You should ask a professional recovery account to try to recover yours.

I know this is pretty scaring! But I promise you, if you follow all these steps, there is almost no luck you will be hacked!

7 Check and manage what devices are connected to your account

This tip is also for Facebook and Gmail. At any moment you can check what devices and where are located the devices that are currently connected to your account. If any of them is not you, or you don’t want this device to be connected to your account anymore, disconnect the device! This can be a computer or a phone.

For Instagram, 1. Go to the mobile App 2. Click on settings. 3. Click on security 4. Then login activity 5. You will see a list of the devices currently connected to your account. You can now click on “it was me” or “it wasn’t me” and disconnect one or several devices to your account.

8 Don’t use USB keys and don’t connect on other computers during your travels

Another technic hackers are using to hack you is to infect a USB key and when you will put in on your computer, it will be infected by a virus. Then, they will have access to your password and your accounts. Also, if you are using a public computer when traveling, be careful where you are connected to your accounts. Always change your passwords after using a public computer if you want to secure your Instagram account (or other social media accounts).

9 Use a different email from the one you are using to contact you

You should use a different email to log in on Instagram than the email that you give to contact you. Indeed, when a hacker is trying to get access to your account in asking to send a reset link to your email, he will not see which email is it. Instagram is only showing c******o@gmail.com. So, if you are using an email that nobody knows, there is no chance the hacker will guess which email it is.

10 More tips!

Moreover, if you want to secure your Instagram account, you should never share personal information about your address, your phone number or showing places close to your home, your kids, or your family. Also, it’s not recommended to geolocalize your home and the place you are currently. It’s better to post when you are not there anymore. Also, you can still restrict or block someone that is spamming or harassing you!

You are ready to secure your social media accounts!

That’s it for today, my travel family! I really hope this post will help you to secure your social media accounts and that it will help you from not being hacked! If you have more questions or more tips, let us a comment below! 😉 If you are interested in social media, you can also read our post about “how to grow a community on social media“! Have a great day and see you soon!