It’s said to affect up 117 million users.
Users of LinkedIn will need to be weary of their account credentials going missing – as a hacker is on the loose, promising to sell up to 117 million user’s information.
Back in 2012, LinkedIn had a major data breach in which hackers were thought to have nabbed around 6.5 million users’ passwords. However, it has been revealed that the number was much higher than originally suspected.
According to a blog post from LinkedIn, the company learned that the data actually included more than 100 million email and password combinations. That number could be as high as 117 million, according to sources.
LinkedIn has sent an email to those affected telling them that their current password had been invalidated and advising it be reset. The company also suggested people use extra security measures on their accounts, such as two-step verification, to make sure hackers have trouble getting in.
After the data breach happened in 2012, LinkedIn reset the passwords of over 6 million users, but apparently did not suspect that emails had been stolen too.
To be safe, LinkedIn recommends you change your account password even if you haven’t received an email suggesting you do so.
