Instagram is alerting users who were targeted by hackers during AI chatbot attacks

Key points

• The widespread hacking campaign that relied on simply asking Meta AI’s chatbot to take over a victim’s Instagram account appears to have continued even after the company said the issue had been resolved.
• Meanwhile, the company has been scrambling to secure the targeted accounts and alert victims.
• Over the weekend, hackers claimed to be exploiting Meta’s AI support chatbot to take over several high-profile Instagram accounts.
• At the same time, a large number of people complained on social media that their Instagram accounts had been hacked, some of them with unique short user-profile handles.
• TechCrunch has seen examples of allegedly hacked handles featuring common forenames or names of countries, which can be then re-sold almost as collectibles in a gray market for so-called “OG handles.” Other victims of the hacking spree appeared to be the dormant Obama White House account (which Meta disputed), and the account of the U.S. Space...