Last week, we learned that over half a billion Facebook accounts were leaked and posted online for hackers to buy. Now, a similar situation has struck LinkedIn, but this time, it potentially affects even more users.
According to CyberNews, information from over 500 million LinkedIn accounts was scraped and posted on a hacker forum. Hackers can purchase the information, which includes full names, email addresses, phone numbers, workplace information, and more, for roughly $2 worth of forum credits.
CyberNews updated its article to say that it appears over 780 million email addresses were identified here, all tied to these LinkedIn accounts.
To LinkedIn’s credit, the company states this information is not part of a data breach. Rather, LinkedIn contends hackers scraped information from outside websites and services that contain publicly available LinkedIn account information.
While it’s good news that LinkedIn didn’t have a data breach, it doesn’t negate the fact that this personal information is out there for bad actors to buy. If you’re curious, you can use various online checkers like Have I Been Pwned to see if your information has been identified in this and other major data breaches.
