Hackers use Amazon cloud to scrape data from LinkedIn profiles

Clouds
Amazon faces some stormy accusations

LinkedIn, the business social network, is suing a gang of hackers who used Amazon's cloud computing service to circumvent security measures on their site.

As a result of the breach, data from hundreds of thousands of profiles on LinkenIn were being copied and saved per day.

"Since May 2013, unknown persons and/or entities employing various automated software have registered thousands of fake LinkedIn member accounts and have extracted and copied data from many member profile pages," company attorneys alleged in a complaint filed this week.

LinkenIn has more than 259 million members, many of whom are highly paid professionals in technology, finance and business. The website holds a wealth of personal data that can prove highly valuable to those who would attempt phishing attacks, identity theft and similar scams.

Avoiding CAPTCHA

The unnamed "Doe" hackers used a number of techniques designed to bypass the anti-data scraping measures in place on the network. Their main method, however, was the creation of fake accounts, making it possible to circumvent restrictions placed on singular members.

"Registering so many unique new accounts allowed the Doe defendants to view hundreds of thousands of member profiles per day," read the complaint.

The hackers also managed to bypass the CAPTCHA dialogue system, through which abusive attempts to register with the site are usually detected. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is taking most of flak for allowing the hackers to make the attacks they did. The feature allows users to rent virtual computers which can run applications and programs.

EC2 has been used by hackers before. In 2011 the Amazon service was used to control a bank fraud trojan and has been a tool used by password crackers.

The goal of LinkedIn's lawsuit is to give lawyers the legal means to learn the identity of the hackers.

Latest in Security
Data leak
Top home hardware firm data leak could see millions of customers affected
Representational image depecting cybersecurity protection
Third-party security issues could be the biggest threat facing your business
A stylized depiction of a padlocked WiFi symbol sitting in the centre of an interlocking vault.
Broadcom warns of worrying security flaws affecting VMware tools
Android Logo
Devious new Android malware uses a Microsoft tool to avoid being spotted
URL phishing
HaveIBeenPwned owner suffers phishing attack that stole his Mailchimp mailing list
Ransomware
Cl0p resurgence drives ransomware attacks to new highs in 2025
Latest in News
Hisense U8 series TV on wall in living room
Hisense announces 2025 mini-LED TV lineup, with screen sizes up to 100 inches – and a surprising smart TV switch
Nintendo Music teaser art
Nintendo Music expands its library with songs from Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Tetris
An image of Pro-Ject's Flatten it closed and opened
Pro-Ject’s new vinyl flattener will fix any warped LPs you inadvertently buy on Record Store Day
The iPhone 16 Pro on a grey background
iPhone 17 Pro tipped to get 8K video recording – but I want these 3 video features instead
EA Sports F1 25 promotional image featuring drivers Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman.
F1 25 has been officially announced, with this year's entry marking a return for Braking Point and a 'significant overhaul' for My Team mode
Garmin clippd integration
Garmin's golf watches just got a big software integration upgrade to help you improve your game