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LinkedIn Scraped Data Archived

Why did I get an email about LinkedIn scraped data breach?
The Queen’s IT Services Security team recently became aware of an April 2021 data scraping event affecting LinkedIn public profiles, the data of which was subsequently posted for sale and distributed. Whilst the data scraping did not constitute a data breach nor did it access any personal data not intended to be publicly accessible, the data was still monetized and circulated. This event may have potentially affected multiple accounts here at Queen’s. As a precaution, Queen’s IT Services will expire the passwords of any Queen’s account found to be listed on the affected LinkedIn accounts list and who have not changed their passwords since April 8, 2021.


What should I do to protect myself?
If you received an email message from IT Services concerning the LinkedIn scraped data breach and have not changed your password since April 8, 2021, you will be sent additional emails requesting you to change your password, prior to your password expiring. NetID passwords are changed at https://netid.queensu.ca/selfservice/login/auth


We also encourage you to take the following actions to better protect yourself and your information:
*Do not reuse passwords across your accounts.
*If you have used your Queen’s password on multiple sites, we strongly encourage you to change that password on every other site where it has been used.
*Be extra diligent of scams that may reference your LinkedIn account.


What data was compromised?
According to reports, unique email addresses, as well as names, geographic locations, genders and job titles were scraped. No private LinkedIn data was exposed.


Why is Queen’s expiring passwords for affected accounts?
Queen’s account holders who fail to follow safe password practices are at risk when events like this occur. To protect your Queen’s account IT Services are taking this action to prevent account compromises by ensuring all accounts associated with data scraping event have refreshed passwords since April 8, 2021.


What caused the data scraping breach?
IT Services obtained breach information from the service called “Have I Been Pwned?” as well as directly from LinkedIn at: https://news.linkedin.com/2021/june/an-update-from-linkedin. Visiting the website https://haveibeenpwned.com/ will allow you to enter and check your Queen’s University email address against all publicized breaches that reference your Queen’s email address. The site also provides details about the data breach, including links to additional information.


  • Publish Date: October 5, 2021 16:39
  • Channels:
  • IT Support Centre