Social networks are often associated with younger demographic and unprofessional behavior, but technical terms include even networks used for more serious things. For more than a decade now, LinkedIn has become synonymous with professional networking, things you often do at parties and social meetings, except entirely online. It may not be as big as Facebook, but it still makes the main targets for hacking and leakage, as shown by this latest incident involving 700 million user records.
Before the alarm turned off, LinkedIn was not hacked, or at least that was insisted on by the company. There is no data violation that leads to user data stolen by hackers. More importantly, there is no personal data from members of the tissue exposed.
What happens, according to LinkedIn, is a simple but complete data erosion activity that produces 700 million numbers. That data treasure includes the full name of the user, email address, telephone number, and work information. The seller, which uses the name “GOD User” Tomorer, provides 1 million records as proof of booty and confirmed as a real deal by independent researchers.
This is not the first massive leak experienced by LinkedIn this year. Last April, a group of 500 million users’ records were also offered to the highest bidder. At that time, LinkedIn made the same statement blaming it on the data eradication method, which violated the provisions of its use.
While personal data is super sensitive, such as credit card details or private messages, not included in Haul, records still include enough information to do damage to the user. Phishing attacks, spam, and even brute force hacking efforts are not far from the possibility, and LinkedIn users are advised to change their passwords, only to be on the safe side.