CYBER ATTACK: LinkedIn confirmed the information but said the hackers had neither launched an attack nor exploited any security flaw in its servers.
LinkedIn confirmed this Thursday on its site a major data leak. On Tuesday, the Cyber news site revealed that the personal data of 500 million LinkedIn profiles were being sold on the Internet by cybercriminals.
The professional social network, however, claims to have suffered no cyberattack and refutes any flaw in the security of its systems. The data was auctioned on a forum frequented by hackers. To prove their point, the hackers offer two million pieces of data as a sample, accessible for a payment of around $ 2.
An investigation launched in Italy
Cybercriminals are waiting for a settlement in Bitcoin which is expected to reach a four-digit amount. The buyer will thus have access to the full name, e-mail address, telephone number, information on the jobs held and the gender of the users concerned. LinkedIn insisted that it was an “aggregation of data from various websites and companies.”
The company ensures that the database for sale does not contain data stolen from users’ private accounts. Those affected by the leak should, however, be alert to any spam or phishing campaigns targeting them. They are recommended to strengthen their online security systems and change their passwords.
The Italian privacy authorities also announced on April 1 that they had launched an investigation into this data breach. Italy is indeed one of the European countries with the most LinkedIn users.
