LinkedIn Leak: 500 Million Accounts Compromised

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On Tuesday it was Facebook, and last night it was LinkedIn’s turn to suffer a data breach of sorts. The reason we say “of sorts” is because the information wasn’t exactly hacked, it was scraped. But what is scraping, exactly?

We also take this opportunity to remind you of the importance of strong password security.

Info was already available

In LinkedIn’s statement, the business-oriented social media platform explained that “no private member account data from LinkedIn was included”. That means the scraped data only includes information you’d be able to see on someone’s public page.

The black-hat hacker behind the attack has put this database of around 500 million accounts up for sale while leaking some 2 million as proof. The four-digit price referred is presumed to be Bitcoin, with details including full names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, workplace information, and more.

So, while it’s reassuring that LinkedIn’s safety software held up, it’s not much comfort for people whose data is being sold online. LinkedIn also hasn’t indicated if they will be telling users whether their data has been compromised.

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If you want to check that out for yourself, you can use this e-mail checker, which doesn’t collect any data whatsoever. Gadgets reiterates the importance of having strong passwords through a password manager, and only share details that are absolutely necessary.

Italy has also announced that they have opened investigations into the matter, especially since the country has one of the highest number of subscribers to LinkedIn in Europe. Affected users need to pay more attention than usual to any anomalies related to their phone number and their account.

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