You've Been Scraped Data Breach (2018): What Was Exposed & What To Do

People whose professional contact details and career information were among the 66.1 million records left exposed now face the possibility that those details have circulated beyond their original intended use. When names, email addresses, job titles, employers, locations and social-media profile links appear together without protection, the practical result is an expanded set of data points available for unsolicited contact or more targeted online activity. The incident was identified in October and November 2018 by security researcher Bob Diachenko, who found several unprotected MongoDB instances belonging to an unidentified data aggregator. The records totalled more than 66.1 million and were believed to have been collected from LinkedIn. No owner of the exposed instances could be confirmed at the time of discovery.

What happened

On 5 October 2018 the exposure was publicly reported. The datasets contained names, both work and personal email addresses, job titles, employers, geographic locations and links to individuals’ LinkedIn profiles. The instances remained accessible until Diachenko’s discovery; after notification the databases were secured. No further technical details about the duration of exposure or the precise method of initial collection have been disclosed.

How a breach like this happens

Exposures of this type commonly result from database instances that are left reachable from the public internet without authentication. MongoDB installations, when deployed with default network settings or omitted access controls, can be discovered through simple scanning. Once located, any records stored in those databases become readable to anyone who connects. Such misconfigurations have been documented across multiple sectors and are not limited to any single category of organisation.

About You've Been Scraped

The name “You've Been Scraped” was applied to the incident because the records were assessed as having been collected from professional networking platforms. Data aggregators routinely compile large volumes of publicly visible or semi-public professional information for purposes such as lead generation or analytics. When an aggregation service stores that information in an inadequately protected system, the scale of records held in one place increases the consequence of any single configuration error.

The information in question

The following categories of data were reported as present in the exposed records:

• Email addresses (both work and personal)
• Names
• Job titles
• Employers
• Geographic locations
• Links to social-media profiles

Exact field lists and record counts beyond the overall figure of 66.1 million have not been independently verified in public statements.

The real-world impact

Individuals whose records appeared in the datasets may receive an increased volume of unsolicited email or see their professional details used to construct more convincing contact attempts. Organisations that rely on accurate professional directories may encounter additional noise from outdated or repurposed contact lists. The data aggregator itself lost control of material whose commercial value depended on controlled distribution.

If your data was in this breach

People concerned about possible exposure can take the following initial steps:

• Review recent unsolicited messages for patterns that reference known job titles or employers.
• Adjust privacy settings on professional profiles to limit what information is publicly visible.
• Use separate email addresses for different categories of correspondence where feasible.
• Run a free exposure scan of their email address against known breach data sets to check for additional appearances.

AICompiled with AI assistance from public sources and published under our editorial standards.