LinkedIn Hit with Massive Data Breach

Complex hacking attack exposed 6.5 million passwords

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

The popular social and professional networking site LinkedIn was recently hit with a major attack that exposed the password information for more than 6.5 million users.

Information about the data breach, which compromised encrypted login details, began leaking out, and was eventually verified by Norwegian security researchers, according to a report from Business Insider. The party responsible for the attack is not yet known, but the passwords were placed on a Russian hacker site.

LinkedIn itself took some time to address the breach, but has not yet confirmed it officially, the report said. Its most recent update shows that it has been unable to confirm that it was hit with a security breach of any kind. In the meantime, security experts note the importance of users changing their passwords on their own, regardless of the site's eventual findings.

Ondrej Krehel, the chief information security officer for Identity Theft 911, has a blog about data breaches, the hackers who cause them, and what consumers who are affected by them can do to make sure their information is safe.

© 2003-2012 IDentity Theft 911, LLC. All Rights Reserved