Hackers Used Meta AI to Access Big Instagram Accounts

Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is using AI on its platforms. However, it seems the company missed a big problem: its AI support chatbot could be tricked into giving unauthorized users access to any Instagram account.

Recently, many popular Instagram accounts were hacked. The Obama White House Instagram account, with 2.4 million followers, was compromised and posted a strange message. Other accounts, like the official Instagram account of the Chief Master Sergeant of Space Force, were also hacked.

Soon after, people on social media started sharing news of the hacked accounts and screenshots of how they were taken over.

The hackers say they used a trick to get Meta's AI support chatbot to give them access to the accounts. They would tell the chatbot to reset the account's password and send the reset email to a new email address, which belonged to the hackers.

The email address was not the real account holder's, but the chatbot would still give the hackers the password reset page for the account.

The hackers were using a common social engineering tactic against the AI chatbot.

Some screenshots of the process were found on Telegram channels where hackers sell their tricks on black markets. Other screenshots were taken by users who said they repeated the hack.

This problem is especially concerning because the account holders could not do anything to prevent it. The AI chatbot was bypassing two-factor authentication to follow the hackers' requests.

Since the news of the hacked accounts went public, Meta seems to have fixed the problem.

Mashable contacted Meta for more information, and we will update this story if we get more details. Meta VP of Communications Andy Stone acknowledged the Meta AI support exploit on social media.

Andy Stone said, 'This issue has been resolved and we are securing impacted accounts,' in a reply to a user.

It is not clear how many accounts were affected by this problem.

The topics of this story include apps, software, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, Instagram, social media, and Meta.

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