LinkedIn Slaps Password Hacker With Legal Threat

LinkedIn today has finally pushed the website hacker to take down the user passwords that appeared online this week after sending a legal threat.

The passwords were first exposed during a data breach that happened in 2012. The hacker's website, LeakedSource, previously claimed that it has full access to the leaked user data. It added that they sell the database to online users who are willing to pay fees that range from US$2 per day up to $264 per year.

LinkedIn also confirmed on Wednesday, as published by the Washington Times, that the social network database was hacked affecting 117 million users. Initially, the business social network administration through that there were only 6.5 million credentials that were compromised. In 2012, LinkedIn as advised users to change their passwords after the data breach happened.

"Yesterday, we became aware of an additional set of data that has just been released that claims to be email and hashed password combinations of more than 100 million LinkedIN members from that same theft in 2012...but we have no indication that this is as a result of a new security breach," said Cory Scott, the company's chief information security officer, in a recent blog post.

LinkedIn lawyers greeted the hacker with a cease and desist letter. LeakedSource has then removed the passwords from its search results. The website owners also confirmed that they received indeed a legal threat from LinkedIn. In a statement, they said" "We received a typical cease and desists letter from LinkedIn lawyers and even though we think they're blowing steam out their ass, for the next couple of days we are going to censor hashes from that particular data set while we consult with our legal team from OUR jurisdiction.

Cybersecurity experts have reminded users to change passwords frequently to lessen the risks of data breach.