Boyd Bikes was targeted in the Instagram hack | Tech Reddy

GREENVILLE, SC (BRAIN) – Boyd Bicycles broke news on Tuesday as the wheel manufacturer was shut out of its Instagram page and lost control of its social media account.

CEO Boyd Johnson told BRAIN on Friday that he received a notification Wednesday morning that someone had logged into the account using a company email address. Then the hacker gets a confirmation code to access the account, and Johnson shuts down.

After the ad account is taken control, an offensive Instagram ad is created that violates the community guidelines and thus the personal account is banned. After learning what happened, Johnson said he canceled the credit card tied to the business account.

Johnson said no customer data was compromised, and the website is secure with Google Authenticator in place.

“When they get into the ad bank and our credit card is tied to that, they really make the ads,” Johnson said. “What I’m hearing is that people are getting bills for $2,500 or more because they’re posting ads. I’ve been getting emails saying your ad has been approved, but you can’t go see it. what ads.”

He said his Instagram account is tied to Facebook as part of the Meta Business Suite.

To add to the confusion, Johnson can’t reach a Facebook person. “Facebook has no human customer service. Everything is done by their AI. The only way to do it is to go through their help center, but you have to log in to do anything. It’s impossible logging in. And you go through this endless circle.”

Johnson filed a data security breach report with the California attorney general. Facebook is in Menlo Park. Boyd Cycling has more than 10,000 Instagram followers, and some posts and videos get more than 100,000 views, said Johnson, who said the brand expects to run Black Friday ads. before the explosion.

BRAIN was informed of a similar hack of 9,000 accounts of cryptocurrency mining platform Allo Vélo in June. The Montreal store used its Instagram account to promote city bikes.

Johnson’s advice to marketers?

“Don’t save browsers on Facebook. It downloads the Google Authenticator app on your phone and asks for a six-digit code every time you log in. It’s a confirmation code. They’ve implemented two-factor authentication.”