Instagram Data Breach: Private data of Social Media influencers leaked

Mumbai: Private and public information of a bunch of Instagram influencers were leaked online by a Mumbai-based company called Chtrbox, a social media influencer marketing agency. The data was found exposed on the AWS (Amazon Web Services) server without a password on Wednesday.

The leak contained both public and private information of nearly 5 crore Instagram influencers that included celebrities, influencers, and brands. The leak was first shared with TechCrunch by a cybersecurity researcher.

The database was traced back to the Mumbai based Chtrbox. According to TechCrunch, each record in the database contained a record that calculated the worth of each account, based off the number of followers, engagement, reach, likes and shares they had. The record was used as a metric to determine how much the company could pay an Instagram celebrity or influencer to post an ad.

Chtrbox denied the reports claiming that they are incorrect and added that it had never purchased any data via “unethical means”. In a statement, the firm said reports were “inaccurate”.

On the other hand, Facebook is looking into the matter and is trying to figure out the exact cause of the breach. “We’re looking into the issue to understand if the data described – including email and phone numbers – was from Instagram or from other sources. We’re also inquiring with Chtrbox to understand where this data came from and how it became publicly available,” it said in a statement.

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