LinkedIn’s 2012 leak has just gone from 6.5 million affected users to 100 million!

Back in 2012, LinkedIn suffered a major hack with a reported 6.5 million users affected. Hacked data included user information – email addresses and partial passwords – and LinkedIn users were told back in 2012 to change their passwords.

Four years on and more account details, allegedly from the same 2012 hack, have now emerged online, and the figure we’re talking about is now 117 million.

The data has been put up for sale on the “dark web” and is reportedly from the same hack in 2012. Hackers claimed that in three days they had managed to hack around 90% of LinkedIn accounts, with the original hack stemming from an unauthorised access and subsequent disclosure of users records.

Affected members were contacted and told to change their passwords, but security experts are now saying anyone with a LinkedIn profile should change their password anyway. Although information derived from LinkedIn may not directly put people at too much risk in terms of fraud and scams, it’s certainly enough to do some damage.

Many people still use the same passwords for accounts as well so it’s easy for hackers to gain access to all sorts of different accounts when they gain access to user information.

It’s another example of just how careful people need to be – and always remember to regularly change your passwords!

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