The author of the post in the hacker forum has shared a file with the data of 2 million user accounts of the professional social network LinkedIn

Several files with information from 500 million LinkedIn users have been shared on a hacker forum for sale, although at the moment it is not clear if this is updated data or from a previous security breach.

The author of the post on the hacker forum has shared a file with the data of 2 million user accounts of the professional social network LinkedIn, as a sample of another larger file, this time of 500 million users.

Both files are available for sale, as reported by Cybernews, and contain information such as full user names, their identification in the social network, emails, phone numbers, work-related data and even links to profiles of other networks. social.

The Cybernews team has confirmed that this is information from the platform, but has not been able to determine if it is updated information or from old security breaches.

Nor has it found information considered sensitive, such as bank details. The author of the post sells the sample file for $ 2 in forum credits, but it appears that the entire file is auctioning it off for four-digit sums, in bitcoins.

However, it is unclear if the threat maker is selling up-to-date LinkedIn profiles or if the data was taken from or added to a previous breach suffered by LinkedIn or other companies long ago.

As a consequence of this leak, LinkedIn users whose information appears in the files may end up being victims of malicious campaigns via email or telephone, but also of ‘phishing’ – impersonation of a legitimate source. Cybercriminals can also try to access profiles.