Linkedin has categorically denied the reports of data leaks that allegedly compromised the data of 700 million users. In a note shared on the website, the company said that we want to be clear that this is not a data breach and no private LinkedIn member data was exposed.
“Our initial investigation has found that this data was scraped from LinkedIn and other various websites and includes the same data reported earlier this year in our April 2021 scraping update”, it noted.
To recall, Data of around 700 million users was allegedly leaked on the Dark web. The data include users' full name, gender, email ID, phone numbers, and company details. It appears that account username and password still remain secure; however, access to phone numbers, email IDs and personal information can result in sophisticated phishing attacks.
After a preliminary investigation, LinkedIn said, “Members trust LinkedIn with their data, and any misuse of our members’ data, such as scraping violates LinkedIn terms of service. When anyone tries to take a member data and use it for purposes LinkedIn and our members haven’t agreed to, we work to stop them and hold them accountable.”
Earlier in April this year, LinkedIn itself had confirmed the data leak of 500 million users. In that leak too, e-mail address, mobile number, full name, account ID, social media account information and office information was compromised.