LinkedIn Hack - what should you do?

Yesterday it was announced that LinkedIn had been hacked and that the passwords for nearly 6.5million members had been published on a hacker’s site.  Most of the passwords were still encrypted, although some have already been cracked.  So far no email logins or usernames have been released, which either means that the hackers didn’t manage to download them or they are keeping the usernames to themselves.  Either way, if you have a LinkedIn account your private data may be at risk.  The worst case scenario is that the hackers would have control of your account and contacts.   If you use the same username and password combination on other sites, then there is a risk that those accounts could be compromised too. 

What should you do if you have a LinkedIn account? 

1.      Change your LinkedIn password. 

2.      LinkedIn has announced that it will email all users whose accounts were affected and give them instructions as to what to do next.  

3.      Don’t click on any email links asking you to change your password, as that could be someone attempting to steal your information – some phishing attacks have already been reported.  Which seems to me to indicate that the hackers do have the email logins.

4.      If you have used the same username and password on other accounts it’s probably a good idea to change the password on those accounts.

Read more about storing your passwords in my post from last week here.