Hacker Claims To Be Selling 100 Million LinkedIn Usernames, Passwords
MOUNTAIN VIEW (CBS SF) – LinkedIn issued a warning to its users Wednesday, after more than 100 million username and password combinations stolen in a cyberattack four years ago are reportedly being put up for sale.
According to Vice, a hacker is trying to sell account information from the 2012 cyberattack for 5 bitcoin, or about $2,200. The hacker claims the database contains 167 million accounts, 117 million of which have email addresses and passwords.
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"We are taking immediate steps to invalidate the passwords of the accounts impacted, and we will contact those members to reset their passwords. We have no indication that this is as a result of a new security breach," the Mountain View-based social network said in a statement.
Initial reports from 2012 said only six million passwords were stolen and leaked onto the internet. At the time of the attack, LinkedIn required all users believed to have been impacted by the breach to change their passwords, while urging others to change them "as a matter of best practice."
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The social network is urging users to visit its Safety Center for instructions to enable two-step verification and to use strong passwords.
Tim Fang is a digital producer for CBS San Francisco and a native of the Bay Area. Follow him on Twitter @fangtj.