LinkedIn suffers data breach of 700 Million users

Lavanya Rao K

July 2, 2021

LinkedIn experienced another massive data breach this year that exposed data of over 700 million users, thus compromising the data of more than 92 percent of its users. The new dataset obtained by an unknown hacker is said to consist of personal details of LinkedIn users, including phone numbers, physical addresses, geolocation data, and inferred salaries. According to LinkedIn, it did not face a data breach, but rather the information was gained from scraping the network. In an emailed statement, LinkedIn said that their investigation has confirmed that no data was exposed and that scraping data violates their Terms of Service and is constantly working to ensure user’s privacy is protected. The hacker behind the data leak appears to have accessed the data from the website using the company’s API, or Application Programming Interface - a software that allows two services to communicate with each other. The new dataset is now up for sale on the dark web, wherein the hacker has posted a sample set of 1 million users for buyers. This data does not include passwords, but other valuable and sensitive information that could lead to phishing and theft.

Abridged fromExchange4Media