Breachesby GlyphDisclosed May 21, 2016164,611,595 accountsConfirmed
In May 2016, LinkedIn had 164 million email addresses and passwords exposed . Originally hacked in 2012, the data remained out of sight until being offered for sale on a dark market site 4 years later. The passwords in the breach were stored as SHA1 hashes without salt, the vast majority of which were quickly cracked in the days following the release of the data.
What is known
| People affected | 164,611,595 (accounts in the leaked data, per Have I Been Pwned) |
|---|---|
| Disclosed | May 21, 2016 |
| Happened | May 17, 2016 |
| Attack | Hacking |
| Data exposed | EmailsPasswordsNamesInsuranceAddresses |
| Sector | Tech · US |
| Status | Confirmed |
| Check your email | Have I Been Pwned |
Sources
Notices filed
Other breaches at LinkedIn
Scraped LinkedIn profile data offered for saleScraping exposed education records, emails, location data, employment records, names and phone numbers.Scraping126M accountsTechUSApr 8, 2021Stolen LinkedIn password hashes posted online; full dump surfaces in 2016Hacking exposed emails and passwords.HackingTechUSJun 6, 2012
History of this record
["emails","passwords"] to ["emails","passwords","names","insurance","addresses"]by backfillSource
empty to LinkedInby backfillSource
unknown to hackingby backfillSource
[] to ["emails","passwords"]by backfillSource
empty to hibpby backfillSource
empty to 164611595by backfillSource
2016-06-02 to 2016-05-21by backfillSource
empty to In May 2016, LinkedIn had 164 million email addresses and passwords exposed . Originally hacked in 2012, the data remained out of sight until being offered for sale on a dark market site 4 years later. The passwords in the breach were storeby backfillSource
First recordedby backfillSource
First seen 2026-09-25 (California AG), confirmed by California AG. Record counts are as reported. Not legal advice.