Posted on October 3, 2018 at 7:07 AM

Hackers Use Instagram For Selling Stolen ‘Fortnite’ Accounts And Botnets

Hackers seem to continue with expanding their areas of interest. Many new reports claim that even stolen Fortnite accounts are currently being sold online. Reports also say that hackers are using Instagram to offer various stolen accounts, as well as entire botnets.

Entire botnets can now be bought on Instagram

Until now, Instagram was seen by many as a place to go and enjoy different images of pets, food, travels, and alike. Now, however, the situation seems to be changing for the worse.

According to new reports, hackers have decided to make Instagram their own personal shop. This is now the place where they are offering access to different stolen accounts. The accounts include mostly Spotify and Fortnite, but there are also entire botnets that can be found and used for DDoS attacks.

This represents yet another example of social media networks having troubles with their content. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, is only the latest source of troubles for this company. This is something that Facebook doesn’t need right now, especially after recent news of 50 million hacked accounts on its own network.

Now, Instagram started hosting people who are advertising botnets supposedly associated with Mirai. This is a network of various IoT devices that connect to form a weapon used for attacking websites and servers. The attacks spam these websites by requesting information. Targeted servers and websites usually cannot handle all these requests. This leads to crashes, with various amounts of damage, depending on the attack.

While wares like these are usually not very sophisticated, individuals can still buy them for cheap amounts. One user even offered subscription-style plans that they would provide for only $5 to $80 per month. The number of individuals advertising these wares, regardless if it is via posts or Story feature, continues to grow.

Even Fortnite accounts are out for sale

As if selling botnets was not bad enough, a lot of hackers have also captured buyers’ interest by selling Fortnite accounts. The game’s popularity has skyrocketed, and gamers around the world have been almost obsessed with the game for months now. Soon enough, hackers saw the opportunity to crack into these accounts, and are now selling them to interested parties.

Some hackers have even broken into accounts to use the real owners’ payment information. They would buy expensive upgrades, and would then send these upgrades to other accounts, likely their own. While Fortnite is currently the most popular game with this kind of problem, it is not the first one, nor the only one that is currently experiencing it. Instead, it would seem that gaming and hacking are getting closer and closer.

Another thing to note is that these hackers are not exactly hiding on Instagram. They are often pretty vocal about their actions and are even following each other. In a way, they have managed to organize an entire hacking community on this social network.

Instagram’s spokesperson commented on this by saying that this kind of behavior goes against the platform’s rules. As a result, the platform is investigating the matter and is planning to remove all content that is violating the terms of use.