LinkedIn Passwords Hacked - UPDATE

By Cynthia J. Larose

4:44 PM -- LinkedIn has confirmed reports of hacking -

http://blog.linkedin.com/2012/06/06/linkedin-member-passwords-compromised/

 

It’s time for a little password hygiene.

ZDNet reports that a Russian organization claims to have downloaded over 6.4 million passwords from LinkedIn.  They also report that some 300,000 of them may have already been accessed.  LinkedIn has yet to confirm these details and continues to investigate if any security breach has occurred.

All LinkedIn users are encouraged to change their passwords --  and, as we've advised with respect to other hacks,  if you use your LinkedIn password for multiple sites you may want to update passwords for those sites as well.  Users should also be aware that the hackers may send phishing emails in attempts to gain more information about them or may use the information accessible on LinkedIn to exploit in social engineering attacks.

Read more about this latest hack –

Los Angeles Times

Forbes

The Guardian

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Cynthia J. Larose

Member / Chair, Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice

Cynthia J. Larose is Chair of the firm's Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice, a Certified Information Privacy Professional-US (CIPP-US), and a Certified Information Privacy Professional-Europe (CIPP-E). She works with clients in various industries to develop comprehensive information security programs on the front end, and provides timely counsel when it becomes necessary to respond to a data breach.