One of the largest social networks solves a gigantic leak of user data. Are you one of them?

Data incredible 700 million users One of the largest social networks in the world was placed a few days ago on an online marketplace in the “underworld of the internet”. The compromised network is a server with mostly professional, biographical and recruiting content from LinkedIn, for which the mentioned number of accounts is 92% of all registered. The Restore Privacy server came up with information, the authors of which found an advertisement that was difficult to absorb on the so-called dark website. The author of the offer also provided several samples of the stolen data, thanks to which we know exactly what data the data leakage or rather online theft in broad daylight concerns.

What did the hacker gain from the accounts?

• email addresses
• full names
• sex
• Phone Numbers
• physical addresses
• location records
• username and photo from LinkedIn
• professional CVs and history
• sex
• usernames from other social networks

LinkedIn and huge data leakage

The good news at this time is that passwords are not included. Even so, it is a giant escape that is almost unparalleled in the history of social networks. The Restore Privacy server has published the published data samples and they appear to be legitimate. They agree with real users and are also quite up to date since come from 2020 and 2021. The attacker appears to have been able to obtain data by abusing access via the LinkedIn API. The author of the advertisement himself wrote this in a private message to the authors of the security website. He also mentioned that he wants $ 5,000 for a complete data package, here about 100 thousand crowns.

According to experts, what can data be used / misused for?

• identity theft
• phishing attacks
• attacks based on social engineering
• account theft

The network operators have already commented on the case. The data did not come from the leak, but was downloaded as publicly available data not only from LinkedIn, but also from other websites. One of the largest global social networks dealt with a similar matter in April and had the same opinion. Even if this is a true argument, it is definitely a very clear warning signal for users of this service.

What information do you have on LinkedIn?

Zdroj: Restore Privacy