LinkedIn: 3 cases involving a lightness of the social network

"Business is uneven and not all recent, but it's starting to do a lot. Benjamin Terrasson, a journalist, said.

To talk about the social network of professional contact, it was counted that in just a few days, 3 vulnerabilities related to a more or less questionable data management were revealed about LinkedIn.

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This whole thing begins with a major leak of personal data, which has never happened in the history of the social network. it will be said that it is the case that concerns him, which has been the most publicized. A week ago, computer security experts revealed a discovery dating back to October 16, involving a server that would contain more than 4 to information about users of the social network, and this, in completely free access. On this database more than 4 billion associated accounts and more than 1.2 billion individuals were found, all registered either on LinkedIn or Facebook.

After being revealed to the FBI, the Federal Police U.S., this database was immediately shut down. The researcher who had done the vinny Troia's name of the database, explained to Wired media that one could probably speak "the biggest data leak from a single source."

But before extrapolating, it must be recognized that the majority of this information was of a public nature in itself. There are approximately 622 million email addresses, names and phone numbers linked to accounts (LinkedIn or Facebook). In this story, what bothers computer security researchers the most is the presence of so much personal information gathered and accessible from the same position. This is likely to facilitate the implementation of several unhealthy activities, from online scam to illegal advertisements. And all this in an amplified way.

According to the researchers, all this data comes from the cross-reference of 4 documents themselves from 2 companies specialized in the collection and accumulation of the personal data of Internet users. Two U.S. companies, People Data Labs and Oxydata, would therefore have sucked up data from LinkedIn. Their specialty is the collection and resale of data collected on the net. Speaking of questions, one of Oxydata's executives said: "Our agreements formally prohibit our customers from reselling the information we provide them. But we have no way of making sure they protect their data properly."

According to the researchers who discovered this database data, the information collected available on the database that leaked was not the result of computer hacking, but rather the transmitting information data compilation companies to highly indelicate customers.

As for The other two security issues related to LinkedIn, the second relates to a vulnerability to use an unknown email to access the account of an individual wants to pass himself by. As for the third security breach, this was revealed following an audit carried out by the digital regulatory agency Ireland. At this level, it was discovered that the social network had collected more than 18 million email address coming to individuals who were not necessarily listed on its platform. the question that then it should arise in this case was how did this network manage to get these Addresses.

All cases question the lightness with which the social network processes the data of its users and anyone who has any interaction with its platform.

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