LinkedIn 2012 Breach Impacted 117 Million Users

Remember the LinkedIn breach that happened four years ago? Yes sir, it does feel as though it is something that happened far away in distant memory now, where it was reported that 6.5 million user credentials were leaked, and LinkedIn was said to have spent close to $1 million in order to fix this particular security breach. Well, it looks like one cannot cover the whole truth for a long time, as the totality of the breach has been revealed today, where not 6.5 million user credentials, but rather, 117 million passwords and emails were obtained throughout the original attack.

Christopher Budd, global threat communications manager at Trend Micro, cites that it is far from unusual for the complete number of stolen information to become available after the initial attack analysis. Budd said, “This late revelation of the extent of a breach is a common thread between many of the major hacks we’ve seen in recent history. This also shows that immediate post-breach impact analysis can be difficult and inexact with additional users often affected outside of the primary scope. This underscores the importance of regular credit monitoring and extended identity protection as a personal and professional best practice.”

Well, 117 million is no small figure to laugh at, don’t you think so?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: linkedin