A database containing 700 million LinkedIn users’ records has been found put up for sale online on a hacking forum. The database has been on offer for sale since June 22 and is under the possession of a user named TomLiner, found on Raid Forums.
There is a sample of 1 million records that can be provided to those seeking proof. However, the price for the entire database was not listed.
The listing only said that the details could be obtained by contacting the poster with details of the payment made using MM/Escrow.
Legitimate data
Privacy Sharks reported on Sunday that it had reviewed the sample and could confirm that it was legitimate. The sample has details like full names, gender, phone numbers, email addresses, and other pertinent industry details.
In a statement put out by LinkedIn, it said that the initial analysis of the dataset includes information scraped from LinkedIn and information from other sources to complete the profiles.
The Microsoft-owned business network says that there was no LinkedIn data breach and its investigation revealed that no private LinkedIn member data was exposed.
Similar story
The new database follows the appearance of 500 million LinkedIn users’ records that were being offered for sale in April. At the time, LinkedIn said that the data was aggregated from several websites and companies.
There is a good chance the 700 million records contain the 500 million that was being offered earlier in the April database.
Raid Forums, where the post was found, is on the open internet and can be found using a Google search. Many sellers of user data collected from websites across the internet can be found there. Internet companies are doing their best to prevent scraping tools from collecting information en masse.
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