Keri Ackling and her husband run a business called Snow Windows, spraying festive designs on to windows at Christmas. It might not be the obvious target of a cyberattack compared with banks, governments and multinationals, but that’s exactly what happened in 2021.
“We received an email to our business account, and things took a turn from there,” Ackling said. The email appeared to be from Instagram and said their account was nearing 10,000 followers and was therefore eligible for extra features, such as going live and blue-tick verification. The email looked legitimate and the information seemed accurate. “I clicked on the link and entered my email and password to verify the account,” she explained. “Not long after I did that, I realised all the posts had been wiped from the Instagram account.”
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