Eliana Shiloh, a cybersecurity expert who goes by @elshiloh on TikTok, revealed Instagram’s latest “Get to Know Me” trend, which exposes answers to security questions.
“If you guys did that Instagram trend with all the questions, literally delete that s–t right now,” Shiloh said in the clip uploaded online with 1.5 million views. “This is hacker nation right here.”
In the one-minute video posted on Dec. 23, the cyber and strategic risk analyst at Deloitte admitted how she almost became a victim of sharing her personal information online.
“I literally started filling it out and then I was, like, wait a damn minute,” she confessed. “These are the answers to a lot of my security questions.”
Instagram’s “Get to Know Me” trend asks social media users to disclose information often asked in security questions such as age, height, birthdate, tattoos, piercings, phobias, favorite season, artist, place, food and drink.
“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,” Shiloh told The Post.
The self-proclaimed professional chatterbox believes social media users are becoming so naive that they could expose their Social Security numbers online next.
“Also, I feel like we’re really inching pretty close to the iceberg on sharing our Social Security numbers,” the Chicago resident added. “This is second par to that.”
The Department of Justice encourages people not to disclose personal information online or within their passwords.
“What you post online can be seen by anyone. Sharing personal information with others you do not know personally is one of your biggest risks online,” the DOJ site read.
Shiloh agreed that sharing too much information can backfire.
“Generally posting on social media can lend to people easily figuring out the answers to your security questions and accessing your accounts,” she said.
Although the trend has cyber risks, it hasn’t stopped social media users from sharing their personal information on TikTok as well.
Gar, who goes by @loyalg101 on TikTok, joined the trend to meet new people, captioning his video “Get to know me.”
Another user, @shadaplayaa, also brought the template over to TikTok, allowing her 11,000 followers to know her personal information.
But Salena Beans, who runs @salenabeans21, was met with some bad news when she uploaded her video.
“Doing this on [Instagram] could get you hacked or locked out it’s a trick,” advised a watcher.
“Yep, I just bought a new scat pack thanks to you. Bless,” admitted someone who jokingly suggested they had scammed Beans.
Meanwhile, TikTok user @bossladyrel__ teased people in a video collecting everyone’s information who participated in the “Get to Know Me” trend.
The video text overlay read, “Me writing down y’alls answers to the ‘get to know me’ trend on [Instagram.]”
Shiloh’s warning resonated with many people who watched her video.
“I literally thought that same thing! There’s a lot of personal info on those,” wrote one person.
“Guys, 3 of my friends got hacked two days after doing the trend. She’s onto something,” a TikToker agreed.
“I literally deleted mine 2 [minutes] after I posted it cause I knew something was up,” admitted another.
Shiloh wants people to “stay vigilant and keep these risks in mind,” she told The Post.
“When I see people gladly publicly posting a list of personally identifiable information all in one place I can’t help but worry.”
