Instagram 'Unusual Login Attempt' verification loop failures

In addition to podcast episodes, we'll also be covering some security- and privacy-related topics in blog-style articles, where we can go into more detail than we could in an episode. This is our first article, a deeper dive into a strange problem with Instagram logins that Liz ran into recently. Stay tuned for both upcoming posts and podcast episodes!

Liz's experiences with "Unusual Login Attempt" verification loop failures

Last week, I got locked out of my personal Instagram account for about an hour. Here's what happened and how I found another way back in.

On August 2, 2019, I logged into my personal Instagram account on my laptop and changed the password as a part of my routine security checkup. As I also post to another Instagram account, namely @looseleafsecure, I logged out after changing my personal account's password to update that account's password as well. After updating @looseleafsecure's password, I logged out and attempted to log back into my personal Instagram account. For whatever reason, I believe the 1Password extension autofilled my old password - my new password was longer than my old password, and I remember the dots representing hidden character covering less of the text field than I …

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