2021’s cyber world was again startled when days into the Facebook breach that released data of millions of users, Microsoft-owned professional networking site LinkedIn witnessed a major data breach. Personal data of almost 500 million users were put to sale on an illegal platform.

Reports indicate that the data is now being sold online by a user reportedly from an underground hacker organisation. As a trigger warning, data of almost 2 million people are accessible for users in the organisation. In exchange for data, the hacker is demanding a four-digit amount which is in USD, and is also likely to accept bitcoins.

With over 740 million users, the data points to almost two-thirds of its member’s data that has been compromised and being sold online. LinkedIn officially confirmed the scraping rather than a breach. Regarding the incident they further stated that ‘no private member account data from the platform was included, the information on the sale is a collection of data from several websites and companies. However, it is confirmed that the data also includes publicly visible sensitive information on the profiles like names, phone number, email ID, workplace information, and even links to their social media profiles.

Data has been monetized since the advent of the digital modern world. The insecurities around their functioning have led to ongoing conversations about anti-trust legislation and digital privacy. Within the major demands of this era, without efficient data leak detection solutions these technological giants will continue falling prey to cyber-attacks and innocent victims will be pushed deliberately into its gimmicks.

By Divya Alex ( Content Writer, WCSF )