500 million LinkedIn accounts compromised by data leak

Up to 500 million LinkedIn users’ accounts could be at least because of a hacking scheme, which scraped people’s names, phone numbers, email addresses, and workplace information. 

According to a report, personal data from hundreds of millions of accounts is now up for sale on an online hacking forum, with the details of up to 2 million already posted online. 

LinkedIn says that the incident wasn’t a data breach on its part, as the data was “actually an aggregation of data from a number of websites and companies.” 

This means that the most likely scenario is that information collected by hackers was public, which would make it accessible on the website. LinkedIn also said that it doesn’t believe that any private data from member accounts were compromised. 

How can users protect themselves?

At the moment, it’s still unclear how this data could be used. However, it’s possible it could be used for sending out spam emails or making spam phone calls using the information gathered. 

Additionally, there are concerns that this could be taken a step further and be used for phishing attacks. In this scenario, it would be more dangerous than usual because personal information could be used to make the scam seem more believable.

The report also noted that the hackers could use information collected in other data leaks and combine it with this information to make scams more effective.  

With the increase in online scams, it’s more important than ever for internet users to take steps to protect themselves and their accounts. Some essential cybersecurity practices include: 

• Resetting any email and other account passwords they hold
• Carefully reviewing the information that’s publicly available on their social media profiles and any other websites they use
• Making sure two-factor authentication is enabled on all online accounts
• Not responding to unsolicited requests for sensitive or personal information