LinkedIn data breach

From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated 21 May 2016

This article is about the May 2012 breach of LinkedIn. For every breach, see Breaches.

The LinkedIn data breach exposed 164,611,595 accounts from linkedin.com in May 2012. The data taken includes passwords and email addresses.^[1]

Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 21 May 2016, 4 years later. It is the 12th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.

What was exposed

LinkedIn’s breach included 2 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:

Data	What it’s used for
Passwords	Criminals try leaked passwords on email, banking and shopping sites, because people reuse them.
Email addresses	Expect scam emails that name the company to look genuine.

Check whether you’re in it.Search your email address on Have I Been Pwned. It tells you which breaches it appears in, LinkedIn among them, without showing the data.
Change your LinkedIn password.If the account still exists, sign in at LinkedIn (linkedin.com) and change it.
Change it anywhere you used the same one.Start with your email, then banking and shopping. Leaked passwords are tried on other sites automatically, within days.
Use a password manager and two-step sign-in.A different password for every site means one breach can’t open the rest. Two-step sign-in stops a leaked password working on its own.
Distrust messages that mention LinkedIn.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.

5 May 2012: the breach, as best it can be dated.
21 May 2016: Have I Been Pwned verifies the data and adds it to its search, 4 years later.

Breaches often stay hidden for a long time. Until it came out, people in it had no reason to change anything.

Breaches that leaked the same kinds of data, closest in time:

See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.

^ Troy Hunt. “LinkedIn”, Have I Been Pwned, added 21 May 2016. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.