Image: Instagram/@krisbernal
Kris Bernal has finally recovered her Instagram profile, days after it was seized by hackers, along with her other social media accounts and personal email.
“Good day all, [it’s] finally me, Kris B, talking to you in my own personal account,” the actress said in her Instagram post yesterday, Sept. 25.
“The past few days had been so chaotic for me,” she added. “Especially how my personal life has been risked in danger because of cyberhackers.”
She stated that it took her three “tedious” attempts, before she managed to finally regain control of her Instagram page.
“The first time GMA [the network’s social media team] helped me to retrieve it, the hacker still kept on coming back, sending me messages and calling me on whatsapp, until I secured it.”
Bernal said the hackers “attack” between 2 to 5 a.m., when the actress is supposedly asleep.
The actress added that her non-showbiz boyfriend, Perry Choi, advised her to create her vlog post last Sunday, Sept. 22, where she first spoke about her social media and personal email being compromised. Bernal stressed that she made the video to immediately warn her followers, in case the hackers attempted to use her account to get money from them.
“The vlog I posted was as real and raw as it is,” she stated. “As I became so emotional thinking about the consequences of the situation.”
Bernal revealed that her social media and email were compromised after she accessed a link in a message, which she thought came from Instagram, as per her exclusive interview with GMA News yesterday, Sept. 25.
According to the actress, the message claimed she had committed copyright infringement, and she had to report to Instagram. Bernal was led to believe that she had to access a certain link to be able to report to the social media platform. She then entered her account details, including her password and email, in the said link.
Bernal added in the interview that she has only regained access to her Instagram account; her Twitter page and email are still under the hackers’ control. Learning from the experience, the actress advised the public to make use of the two-factor authentication method to protect their accounts, since it was what helped her keep the hackers from seizing her Instagram page again.
The National Bureau of Investigation urged the public to be cautious of clicking links and giving one’s information online. Ryan Arcadio/JB
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