Instagram Safety: Instagram Phishing Awareness Advert
This is an assignment for the module CC4262 Emotions Engineering, we were requested by IT Protective Security Solutions Sdn. Bhd (ITPSS) to create a 30 second awareness video that addresses the current social issues in Brunei Darussalam where we are to pick one topic from the sixteen current social issues. The topic that grabbed my attention was Instagram Safety as an active Instagram user which I could probably able to relate more. I aim to focus on the issue that could jeopardize a user’s Instagram Safety which is Instagram Phishing Scam.
Instagram Phishing
Firstly, phishing is when someone attempts to get access to your Instagram account by sending you a suspicious Direct Message that contains links which will require you to fill in your personal information to access the page or content. There may have been some cases where the messages claim that your account will be banned or deleted if you don’t fill in your personal information and when they successfully get hold of your personal information and get into your account, your account will be used to send spam messages to your followers (Instagram, 2020)
Instagram Phishing in Brunei Darussalam
BruCERT, the nation’s most trustworthy one-stop referral agency which revolves around computer-related security occurrences in Brunei Darussalam (BruCERT, 2020) had posted a Phishing Scam alert back in April 2020 on their official Instagram account (BruCERT, 2020). They stated during that time, there was an increase in the number of reports from local Instagram users where the users have been receiving Direct Messages (DM) from an unknown account claiming to be ‘their old friend’ and also shared a link to access the photo of them together. The unknown accounts would have a common local name hence could convince some people to click the link. When they click the link, usually it would lead to a website where it would ask the user to fill in their Gmail username and password enabling the scammer to capture their personal information. In some cases, the victim would be redirected to another phishing website.
This issue could cause the user to lose control of their Instagram account and even email account and other social media accounts that are linked to that email account. This issue could also enable to scammers to obtain access to the victim’s sensitive documents, financial and personal information and this could lead to scammers to get through the email-based Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) and mess with the security settings and more. (BruCERT, 2020).
Storyline
The storyline is a young woman browsing her Instagram then suddenly receives a Direct Message (DM) from an unknown person with a name that is one of the common names in Brunei Darussalam where that person claims that they were old friends mentioning that they were at the same class and mentions that the person just uploaded photos of them together even providing the link for her. The young woman is curious of this person and wanted to see the person’s face that’s why she decided to click the link.
The link somehow leads to her filling up her Instagram username and password, without thinking any longer she filled them in and logged in again but it became blank. She lost her access to her Instagram account and the scammer posted spam posts to her followers where the spam inappropriate posts asking her followers click on her Instagram bio to check out her other photos whereby is a scam link hence her account became another tactic to scam her followers.
Final Outcome
-The video will be posted after approval from the agency-
