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Instagram accounts hacked to promote adult content

Symantec researchers spotted an influx over the last few months in hacked Instagram accounts used to promote adult dating spam to earn money through an affiliate program.

The campaign has been linked to a separate spate in hacked  Twitter accounts used to post links to adult dating sites and sex personals, although researchers have yet to establish a direct link between the two, according to an Aug. 10 blog post.

The compromised accounts displayed similar traits including a modified usernames and altered links to redirect users to the affiliate tag and ultimately the adult content, researchers said in the post.

It is unclear how the accounts were compromised but researchers implied they could have been obtained from previous password dumps from sites where users shared credentials between accounts.

Users are advised to enable two factor authentications to prevent having their accounts compromised. 

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