6.5 million LinkedIn users had their passwords hacked this week. What should you do? Hints below, after the story.
As reported at LinkedIn’s blog: “Yesterday we learned that approximately 6.5 million hashed LinkedIn passwords were posted on a hacker site. Most of the passwords on the list appear to remain hashed and hard to decode, but unfortunately a small subset of the hashed passwords was decoded and published. To the best of our knowledge, no email logins associated with the passwords have been published, nor have we received any verified reports of unauthorized access to any member’s account as a result of this event. Since we became aware of this issue, we have been taking active steps to protect our members. Our first priority was to lock down and protect the accounts associated with the decoded passwords that we believed were at the greatest risk. We’ve invalidated those passwords and contacted those members with a message that lets them know how to reset their passwords. Going forward, as a precautionary measure, we are disabling the passwords of any other members that we believe could potentially be affected. Those members are also being contacted by LinkedIn with instructions on how to reset their passwords.”
Tips:
- Periodically change your passwords.
- Use multiple passwords. Do NOT use the same password for all accounts.
- Use several letters and at least one number and symbol in your passwords.
- Be careful about who you allow to connect to you or to friend you.