Cybersecurity expert warns people against taking part in viral Instagram trend
Topics: Instagram, Social Media, TikTok, Technology
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@elshiloh
Topics: Instagram, Social Media, TikTok, Technology
A cybersecurity expert has warned people against taking part in the 'Get to Know Me' Instagram trend.
Social media trends come and go, with the current talk of the town extremely popular amongst the Gen-Z generation right now.
The 'Get to Know Me' trend begins with a pre-made template that asks your age, height, birthdate, tattoos, piercings, phobias, favourite season, artist, place, food and drink.
Sounds pretty bog standard and a bit of harmless fun, right? Well, Eliana Shiloh, a cyber and strategic risk analyst at Deloitte, has said taking part in the latest trend could cause more harm than good. Watch what she had to say below:
Advert
Taking to TikTok under the username @elshiloh to share her concerns, the expert said: "If you guys did that Instagram trend with all the questions, literally delete that sh*t right now.
"This is hacker nation right here. I literally started filling it out and then I was, like, wait a damn minute. These are the answers to a lot of my security questions."
Eliana went on to claim that hackers would have a 'field day' with this Instagram trend, adding: "I don't know about you guys but I have had quite a few fake accounts made of me. This is fuelling the fire."
Following the viral TikTok, which has more than 1.5 million views, Eliana has spoken further about the subject to the New York Post.
"While the answer to your security questions might not be something simple included in these trends, participation in them gives the 'bad guys' an itemized list of your personally identifiable information," she said.
"Also, I feel like we’re really inching pretty close to the iceberg on sharing our Social Security numbers. This is second par to that."
"Generally posting on social media can lend to people easily figuring out the answers to your security questions and accessing your accounts," the expert concluded.
Many have flocked to the comments section of the TikTok and it's fair to say a lot are not taking the expert's advice on board.
"My answers have nothing to do with my security questions LMFAO," one person commented.
A second added: "yeah bc my passwords gonna be vodka cran as my fav drink?? what," while a third remarked: "Dude my security questions have NOTHING to do with those questions???"
Nonetheless, you can never be too careful online nowadays can you?