LinkedIn User Passwords Stolen

If you’re a member of social networking site LinkedIn then it’s time to change your password, as reports have surfaced today that hackers have managed to download a substantial amount of user passwords.

LinkedIn is a social networking site aimed at professionals who wish to connect and communicate with fellow professionals across the globe. It launched in 2003 and today has over 56 million users.

However reports surfacing today claim that a substantial number of accounts have had their passwords stolen by hackers. Early reports claim that the number of affected accounts is over 6 million meaning this would be by far the most significant security breach in the social networking sites history. LinkedIn has confirmed via their blog that a breach occurred.

LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals

The passwords stolen would have been in an encrypted format but it is likely that hackers at some point would be able to mange to decrypt these passwords in time. Simple to crack passwords are likely to be the first compromised.

LinkedIn have since reported that those with affected accounts will notice that their passwords will not work and will receive an email in due course on how to proceed, though we recommend that if you are a LinkedIn member then you should be changing your password any way, for good measure.

This noteworthy security breach also highlights the importance of having different passwords for your various online accounts. If hackers have managed to obtain a user’s LinkedIn password through this breach there is a significant chance that they may try and gain access to other accounts belonging to the user since it is well known that many users employ the same password for many online accounts that they own.

this article is regarding a recent story and is likely to be updated in the future