Data of 500M LinkedIn users leaked, might include personal information

Over 500 million LinkedIn users data leaked on the dark web, includes personal information User IDs, full name, email addresses, phone numbers, linked social media profiles and other work-related data.

In another roundabout of data security breaches on online platforms, it seems like we have another one this time involving LinkedIn, a platform for professional networking. Data from over 500 million LinkedIn users are being put out on sale online to the hackers, making it the second major cybersecurity threat incident in the past week after the Facebook data leak incident.

The mass of the LinkedIn data leak that is being put out on sale includes information like User IDs, full name, email addresses, phone numbers, linked social media profiles, and other work-related data that is being put out by the user in its LinkedIn profile. Though it is safe to say that the leaked data doesn't seem to contain any financial details or legal documents of the users that could be used for fraud but the lack of legitimate proof regarding financial data breach doesn't mean the leaked data isn't dangerous.

Also Read: LinkedIn launches Skills Path, for skill-based hiring processes

As per LinkedIn's official statement, the database for sale is actually an aggregation of data from a number of websites and companies.

The official statement by the platform read -

"Members trust LinkedIn with their data, and we take action to protect that trust. We have investigated an alleged set of LinkedIn data that has been posted for sale and have determined that it is actually an aggregation of data from a number of websites and companies. It does include publicly viewable member profile data that appears to have been scraped from LinkedIn. This was not a LinkedIn data breach, and no private member account data from LinkedIn was included in what we’ve been able to review.

Any misuse of our members’ data, such as scraping, violates LinkedIn terms of service. When anyone tries to take member data and use it for purposes LinkedIn and our members haven’t agreed to, we work to stop them and hold them accountable."