Gone in an Insta
Booming business hit by hackers
GOLD COAST photographer Jules Ingall spent years building up her business – and then lost it in a flash.
Ms Ingall, who is renowned for her travel and wildlife photos, was a victim of a worldwide hacking incident that saw her Instagram account abruptly shut down.
It was a rude awakening for someone who had based her business on the popular app.
“To rely on an app that you have no control over is very risky,” said Jules, wife of motorsport legend Russell Ingall. “I’ve had a long think about my business structure over the past week. They (Instagram) have so many rules, they can take your account off you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Ms Ingall has had her account restored but only after having to haggle Instragram officials for more than a week.
And she wasn’t the only one. More than six million accounts were caught up in the drama when hackers created a dark web database of personal information, revealing private phone numbers and email addresses.
The scale of the hack on the popular app emerged after the Instagram account of pop star Selena Gomez was compromised and naked pictures of her ex, Justin Bieber, were leaked online.
Ingall, who has more than 21,000 followers, is among the scores of Gold Coast social media users who rely on the app for income.
“My whole photography business started out of my Instagram following,” she said.
“I’ve spent hours every day for the past three years working on the account and building up my following, it would be impossible to build up a following again organically.”
Ingall, who specialises in tourism photography, said her friends rallied around her to get the Instagram account back.
“I attacked it from every angle: I sent them Facebook messages, tweeted them and I had other people reporting the problem on the Instagram app,” she said. “I wasn’t really worried about the privacy side of things, the only information I had on there was my email address, it probably would’ve