Tons of LinkedIn user accounts were reportedly hacked in a huge hacking campaign. Many users on the platform are however not too happy with the social media networking platform for their alleged slow response time to the problem.
LinkedIn User Accounts Hacked
Someone right now is reportedly targeting LinkedIn accounts and trying to break in with either user login credentials that have been leaked elsewhere or with brute-force attacks.
And as a result of this, many people have had their accounts reportedly compromised, while others in question have been locked out due to several failed login attempts.
Cyberint in the early parts of this week reported that many LinkedIn users took to social media platforms, such as Reddit, Twitter, or even Microsoft Forums, to reportedly seek help. The customer support of LinkedIn, it seems, is being overwhelmed with several requests, thus resulting in unusually long response times.
“Some have even been pressured into paying a ransom to regain control or faced with the permanent deletion of their accounts,” Coral Tayar, Cyberint researcher in a writeup said.
User Reactions to the Reported Hack
Sharing their experience on the social media platform Reddit, one user stated that their account got hacked six days ago and that the email that was associated with the account was changed in the middle of the night.
The victim in question then asked the company for help, but to no avail: “No response from them anywhere. It’s pathetic. I tried reporting my hacked account, going through identity verification, and even DMing them on @linkedinhelp on Twitter. No responses anywhere. What a joke of a company.”
The Aim and Identity of the Threat Actors
While the main goal of the reported campaign is still very much unknown, as is the identity of the attackers in question, the researchers however did manage to find out that the emails of accounts on the platform are being replaced with those from the “rambler.ru” service. This however doesn’t necessarily mean that the threat actors carrying out the attacks are Russian, but it however does give some credence to the notion.
Why Users and Account Holders Should Be Worried
And as for the goals in question, social media accounts can be easily utilized for malware distribution, social engineering, or even fraud. Messages that are received from friends, as well as colleagues on social media platforms, usually have a higher open rate than those that are coming from complete strangers, possibly resulting in more successful malware campaigns in the process.
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