After Facebook, 500 Million LinkedIn Users¡¯ Data Leaked Online
Cybercriminals scraped information from 500 million LinkedIn users profiles which are available for sale on a popular hacker forum cybersecurity news and research site CyberNews reported. The hacker reportedly leaked 2 million records as a proof-of-concept sample which includes account IDs full names email addresses phone numbers workplace information genders and links to other social media accounts.
Even before we could recover from the news that personal data of 533 million Facebook users are readily available online and that the social media giant won¡¯t even notify those affected (Yep!), there¡¯s another huge batch of data floating around the internet.
BCCL
Cybercriminals scraped information from 500 million LinkedIn users profiles which are available for sale on a popular hacker forum, cybersecurity news and research site CyberNews reported.
The hacker reportedly leaked 2 million records as a proof-of-concept sample, which includes account IDs, full names, email addresses, phone numbers, workplace information, genders, and links to other social media accounts.
CyberNews
The leaked samples can be viewed for about $2 worth of forum credits, while the much-larger 500 million user database is being auctioned for at least a 4-digit sum, presumably in bitcoin, the report added.
LinkedIn Confirms Data Leak
The Microsoft-owned social network confirmed the attack in a blog post, but maintained that the database for sale ¡°is actually an aggregation of data from a number of websites and companies¡±.
¡°We have investigated an alleged set of LinkedIn data that has been posted for sale,¡± the company said in a statement. LinkedIn assures that although the dataset does include publicly viewable member profile data, ¡°no private member account data from LinkedIn was included in what we¡¯ve been able to review¡±.
Reuters
LinkedIn stresses that ¡°this was not a LinkedIn data breach¡±, however it¡¯s yet to affirm if the company plans on telling users whose data is included in the dataset.
What this means for you
LinkedIn has over 740 million members, which means two-thirds of the platform's user base could be affected by the reported data scraping of 500 million users.
The data from the leaked files can be used by hackers to carry out targeting phishing attacks, send spam calls and SMS as well as impersonate them into revealing sensitive login information.
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Users should be cautious against strange messages and connection requests from strangers; change their LinkedIn and email passwords; and enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on all their online accounts.
