Instagram affected with a bug that reveals users' emails and phone numbers

When they say no-one is safe online, well the saying might be true. With the proliferation of technology, cyber criminals have advanced a lot and are almost behind many crimes that we have heard about lately. Whether it's through ransomware attacks or a bug placed in an application these criminals can pretty much cause a lot of trouble for a particular user or users.

Having said that, popular photo sharing app, Instagram has now in a blog post revealed that they come across a bug within the platform that could be used to access some people's personal details like email address and phone numbers, even if they were not public. However, the company has stated that no passwords or other Instagram activity could be accessed by this bug.

Unfortunately, the company hasn't also clarified or provided details on the number of people who may have been impacted by this bug. But the company is speculating the percentage to be less. While talking with Variety, Instagram said, "We recently discovered that one or more individuals obtained unlawful access to a number of high-profile Instagram users' contact information - specifically email address and phone number - by exploiting a bug in an Instagram API."

Besides, Instagram Co-founder and CTO, Mike Krieger has already made sure that the bug was immediately removed, and further the company is working at the moment with law enforcement on resolving the case.

Instagram has also published a cautionary note on the blog saying, "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 unrecognized incoming calls, texts, or emails. Additionally, we're encouraging you to report any unusual activity through our reporting tools. You can access those tools by tapping the '...' menu from your profile, selecting 'Report a Problem' and then 'Spam or Abuse.'"

"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," Krieger said.

In any case, as the bug has reportedly been fixed, users should always remember to have a strong password and turn on two-factor authentication as well.