LinkedIn Hacked — 167 Million Accounts for Sale on Dark Web

By John Burcham in Breach and Scam News 0 Comment
LinkedIn-Data-Breach-May-2016V2

UPDATE: CSO reports that the LinkedIn data breach has been connected to a series of data breaches that occurred shortly after, including Citrix’s GoToMyPC and TeamViewer. A list of LinkedIn users’ names, work history and passwords obtained in the initial breach provided the information needed for hackers to gain access into other secondary networks.

What should you do?

  • Avoid using the same password for multiple sites.
  • Change your passwords every 90 days.
  • Create passwords with a minimum of 8 characters and a variety of capital and lowercase letters, symbols and numbers.

What happened? 

Account information of 117 million LinkedIn users has surfaced on the online black market. The hacker responsible is seeking 5 bitcoins ($2,200 USD) for the database of users’ email addresses and encrypted passwords. 

An additional 50 million LinkedIn email addresses, without passwords, are also for sale. Continue reading

Growing up Cyber: Generation Z and Online Privacy

By Laura Bruck in Personal Protection 0 Comment
Generation Z

Teaching your teens about technology probably sounds like the making of a bad joke. As a parent of Generation Z, I know firsthand that my kids will out tweet, out snap and out share me any day of the week. After all, it’s practically hard-coded in their DNA. 

Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2010, has never known a world without the Internet. Researchers have crowned them the most diverse, engaged and tech-savvy generation thus far. And while most can give you a crash course in adjusting your Facebook privacy settings, it’s important not to take their cyber know-how for granted — after all, they are still young.

So let’s examine where Generation Z excels in privacy and offer advice on where these future leaders might need a friendly nudge in the right direction. Continue reading

Update: Ashley Madison Hack Confirmed

By John Burcham in Breach and Scam News 0 Comment
Ashley Madison Hack Update Fighting Identity Crimes

This is an update to our initial coverage of the Ashley Madison hack. View the original story here.

Update: 9:00 a.m. ET: A group of researchers, dubbed Cynosure Prime, have successfully deciphered over 11.2 million Ashley Madison passwords in only ten days.

Although the passwords were hashed, a security feature that uses an algorithm to mask sensitive data, Ashley Madison used a less effective form of hashing which made the passwords easy to decipher. Continue reading

You’ve Got Blackmail! Hackers Haunt Ashley Madison Users

By John Burcham in Breach and Scam News 1 Comment
Ashley Madison hack

Update (08/2015): Ashley Madison Hack Confirmed

Hackers have now published this data on the Dark Web. Ashley Madison users are now at an increased risk of blackmail, phishing scams and identity crimes. For more information, please see visit our Ashley Madison Hack Update post.

With the tagline “Life is Short. Have an Affair,” Ashley Madison users probably don’t want their online endeavors leaked to the entire world. Unfortunately, hackers have other ideas in mind.

AshleyMadison.com connects married individuals with others seeking to have extramarital relations, boasting more than 37 million current members. The company places emphasis on its discretion and security. Ironically enough, Ashely Madison has officially become the victim of one of the most highly publicized hacks this year. Continue reading