LinkedIn Corporation

The California Office of the Attorney General disclosed a **data breach** affecting **LinkedIn Corporation** in **June 2016**, stemming from an earlier **2012 incident** that was rediscovered. The breach exposed **117 million user accounts**, compromising **email addresses, hashed passwords, and LinkedIn member IDs**. Although passwords were invalidated for accounts created before 2012 as a mitigating measure, the incident highlighted significant vulnerabilities in LinkedIn’s historical security practices. The exposed data, while hashed, posed risks of credential stuffing, phishing, and unauthorized account access if decryption attempts succeeded. The breach did not involve financial or highly sensitive personal data (e.g., Social Security numbers), but the scale of exposed credentials—one of the largest at the time—undermined user trust and required widespread password resets. LinkedIn faced reputational damage and regulatory scrutiny, though no direct financial fraud or identity theft was reported as a direct consequence of this specific breach.

Source: https://oag.ca.gov/ecrime/databreach/reports/sb24-62124

TPRM report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/linkedin

"id": "lin026090625",
"linkid": "linkedin",
"type": "Breach",
"date": "6/2012",
"severity": "85",
"impact": "4",
"explanation": "Attack with significant impact with customers data leaks"

{'affected_entities': [{'customers_affected': '117 million',
                        'industry': 'Technology / Social Networking',
                        'location': 'California, USA',
                        'name': 'LinkedIn Corporation',
                        'type': 'Corporation'}],
 'data_breach': {'data_encryption': 'Hashed (passwords)',
                 'data_exfiltration': 'Yes',
                 'number_of_records_exposed': '117 million',
                 'personally_identifiable_information': 'Yes (email addresses '
                                                        'linked to member IDs)',
                 'sensitivity_of_data': 'Moderate to High (hashed passwords '
                                        'and email addresses)',
                 'type_of_data_compromised': ['email addresses',
                                              'hashed passwords',
                                              'LinkedIn member IDs']},
 'date_detected': '2016-05-17',
 'date_publicly_disclosed': '2016-06-02',
 'description': 'The California Office of the Attorney General reported a data '
                'breach involving LinkedIn Corporation on June 2, 2016. The '
                'breach date was May 17, 2016, and it involved member email '
                'addresses, hashed passwords, and LinkedIn member IDs, all '
                'from a 2012 incident. Approximately 117 million accounts were '
                'potentially affected as passwords for accounts created before '
                'the 2012 breach were invalidated.',
 'impact': {'brand_reputation_impact': 'Potential reputational damage due to '
                                       'exposure of 117 million accounts',
            'data_compromised': ['email addresses',
                                 'hashed passwords',
                                 'LinkedIn member IDs'],
            'identity_theft_risk': 'High (due to exposure of email-password '
                                   'combinations)'},
 'initial_access_broker': {'data_sold_on_dark_web': 'Likely (historical '
                                                    'context of 2012 breach '
                                                    'data resurfacing)'},
 'post_incident_analysis': {'root_causes': 'Legacy data from 2012 breach '
                                           'resurfaced; inadequate long-term '
                                           'protection of hashed credentials'},
 'references': [{'source': 'California Office of the Attorney General'}],
 'regulatory_compliance': {'regulatory_notifications': 'California Office of '
                                                       'the Attorney General'},
 'response': {'containment_measures': 'Passwords for accounts created before '
                                      'the 2012 breach were invalidated',
              'law_enforcement_notified': 'Yes (California Office of the '
                                          'Attorney General)'},
 'title': 'LinkedIn Data Breach (2016)',
 'type': 'Data Breach'}